Are you looking for a place to post your work, hoping to receive comments, suggestions and criticisms? If so, this forum is for you! Showcase your stories, drawings, animations, and anything else you have created here. You can even upload your files directly to our site! Note: Everyone is free to share opinions of anything here. If you can't handle criticism, refrain from posting here!

Forum rules
This section is for any artist, writer, animator, or any form of creation to share their work in order to receive comment to improve themselves better.

My first story is the first chapter of a story called: ”Aryan Thunder”

Author's Chapter Notes:This is based on a story I started writing in 2007, I condensed and ommitted unnecessary information and had the shrinking take place in chapter one instead of chapter three.*******************************************Chapter One: Arrival of Raleigh

Some time in March, three days after Daylight Savings Time went into effect...

An inter-dimensional vortex ripped open in the fabric of space somewhere above the planet Earth. A woman in her mid-twenties was piloting a star-cruiser that emerged from the wormhole that collapsed and disappeared. She had blonde hair and blue eyes, and was very beautiful. She used her technology to take over every television and radio channel on Earth. The young woman addressed the people of Earth:

"I am Raleigh Doran, an inter-dimensional visitor from a world where the Nazis emerged victorious from World War Two. Tonight I will launch thousands of neutrino dissimilators into geosynchronous orbit, so every square inch of land on Earth will be detectable. At 7:00 a.m. this Saturday morning Berlin time, I shall miniaturize all people who are non-white. Anyone half-white or with a greater than half percentage of Caucasian ancestry will not fall victim to my neutrino dissimilators. You have 48 hours to prepare!"

The starcruiser descended over Washington D.C. and hovered over the Washington monument. "As a vulgar display of my power, I will shrink the Washington monument!"

A beam of energy emanated from her craft, and the Washington monument was reduced to a couple of feet in height.

In a well to do home in Bullet Bay, California, A young college student and her friends were watching the spectacle as it happened. Pearl had blonde hair and blue eyes, while Susan Stabler was a brown-eyed brunette. April Scott had dark hair and blue eyes, while her friend Heidi Hayes was a blue-eyed blonde. All of them were 19 years old, and in college.

"Seven a.m. Berlin time will be ten o'clock Friday night for us," said Pearl, "I've been to Germany and I know Berlin is nine hours ahead of us here in California."

"You should throw a party this Friday, Pearl!" said Susan.

"That's a great idea," said Pearl, "we could invite a bunch of Mexicans and watch them shrink!"

"I know a gangster chick named G-girl," said Susan. "She knows most of the Mexicans our age, and she can invite them over here. She's half-Mexican, so according to Raleigh Doran, G-girl should remain normal size."

"Didn't you have a boyfriend named Sparky, Pearl?" Heidi asked. "He's half Mexican-American, you should invite him, too"

"We can watch over them after they shrink," said Pearl. "This house can be a safe haven for them."

Meanwhile, across town, Sparky gets a phone call from Pearl. She explains the situation, and he vows to construct a voice amplifier so the shrunken people will be able to be heard more easily by the normal-sized people. He toils for the next two days, but miscalculates the time when Raleigh will shrink everyone. When it was time to set his watch and clocks back an hour that previous Sunday, he had forgotten, so the time was actually one hour later than he realized. He was unaware that in a few minutes, he would be shrunk along with the other non-white inhabitants of the entire planet.

Back at Pearl Grinder's house, G-girl showed up with about a dozen young Mexican men and women.

"They don't believe anyone is getting shrunk tonight," said G-girl. "I'm not so sure about it either, but I'm half-white so I'll stay normal-size whether it's true or not."

There were more white women than men at the party, Pearl, Susan Stabler, and some other women who went to their junior college. Pearl got a phone call from Heidi, who informed her that she and April were on their way over.

Sparky was walking to Pearl's house with the voice amplifier when the neutrino dissimilators Raleigh launched into orbit went into action. Sparky was instantly shrunk down to an inch tall, and he dropped the device he was carrying. Heidi and April happened to be walking by when they saw him, and he tried to run from them, because he didn't know them.

They blocked his path with their shoes as they stepped in his path.

"How does it feel to dwell under the dominion of the mighty Aryan race?" Heidi asked.

"I shouldn't be shrunk, I'm half-white!" Sparky shouted. April's foot slammed down to block him from running in another direction, and at an inch tall, he was easily cornered and captured. They carry him and the device to Pearl's house, and set him and the device on the dining room table. There were over a dozen Mexican-Americans who were attending Pearl's party that Friday night, and they were collected by the party goers and set on the table along with Sparky.

Among them are a young woman named Zu-Zu, and her boyfriend Wam-Wam. Heidi sets a container on the table, and tells everyone to gather around the table.

"Six years ago, I was visited by a time traveler who claimed I was her ancestor. She gave me a neutrino dissimilator pistol that only shrinks non-white people, and I've been collecting criminals ever since." Heidi opened a container, and dumped out a dozen miniaturized captives who had been shrunk down to the same scale as Sparky and the other Mexican-Americans on the table. "She told me about the arrival of Raleigh, so I've been waiting for this night for a long time."

"Someone needs to get a hold of Raleigh," said Sparky. "I should've remained normal size because I'm half white!"

"We'll check into that," said Pearl. "I'm sure this has happened to other people, and someone as technologically advanced as Raleigh must have a contingency plan in case something like this happens."

"I say it's high time we had some fun," said Susan, who was clad in ankle-high boots, thrashed fishnet stockings, a denim mini-skirt, and a t-shirt. "Who wants to climb my fishnets?"

Some of the miniaturized men volunteered, including Sparky. Susan collected five shrunken men and sat on the carpet, with her legs spread out in front of her. She commanded them to march astride her legs while she lifted her knees up, and they climbed up, using the fishnets like rungs of a ladder. Several of the normal-sized people were taking videos of the action with their cell-phones. Susan stood up carefully as soon as she knew they had a good grip, and they climbed from her ankles to her upper thighs.

The mood changed when the door shot open and a 21-one-year old woman with light brown hair and blue eyes came storming in carrying a bottle of whiskey. She had her back to Sparky, and he could see the word "White" tattooed on her upper left arm, and the word "Pride" tattooed on her upper right arm.

"Let's get down with swallowing some Mexicans!" she shouted. "I'm in the mood for some Mexican food!"

Pearl walked up and greeted the woman. "Hi Crystal Mae, welcome to my party!" Pearl turned and announced to the others at the party who the newcomer was. "This is my Cousin, Crystal Mae Miller. She's an outlaw chick from L.A."

"Can I swallow some of them?" Crystal asked.

"This is a sanctuary for shrunken people," Pearl replied. "I can't let you kill any of them. Some of these Mexicans are friends I went to school with."

"Can we compromise?" Crystal asked.

"How so?" Pearl asked.

"I could swallow one and puke him back up, maybe you can get one to volunteer."

"Would any of you volunteer to get swallowed by my Cousin Crystal?" Pearl asked.

Sparky was the only one brave enough to volunteer. Pearl plucked him from Susan's thigh, and gave him to Crystal. The young woman lifted him into the air, then dropped him into her open mouth. He hit her tongue and her lips sealed behind him. Crystal took a swig from her whiskey bottle, and sent Sparky plunging down her esophagus, and into her waiting belly.

Crystal rubbed her belly and laughed, then took another swig from her bottle.

This is a novel I plan on making into a graphic novel at some point. There is no vore in the first three chapters, but there is vore in chapters four, five, nine and ten. This story is called: ”Daunting Damsels”

Chapter One: Arrival on Dakadania

In a cobblestone courtyard an energy field appeared, and a 13-year-old girl materialized. Like clockwork, an older girl showed up to meet with the new girl who had just arrived.

"Hi, my name is Audrey Filchner, I will be your mentor! Welcome to Dakadania!"

"Dakadania?" the girl asked.

"Dakadania is a refuge for runaway kids, where we stay and get tutored until we're eighteen, then we return to the planet Thanatar! What's your name?"

"Caitlin! Caitlin Snare!"

"When I first arrived here, I was greeted by a mentor who tutored me and taught me the ways of Dakadania, and I will do the same for you!"

"Cool!" said Caitlin.

Caitlin and Audrey walked toward a table and chairs where they could sit down. A sudden noise caught their attention, a buzzing sound. When they turned to look in the direction of the noise, they saw an energy field touching the cobblestones of the courtyard. The energy field was about six inches high and three inches wide.

Both of the giant girls ran toward the light, which from their perspective was only twenty feet away.

A man stepped through the energy portal, and he stood an inch tall from the perspective of the two girls. Caitlin and Audrey saw him, and raced to intercept him. The two teenage girls simultaneously grabbed the tiny man at the same time.

"According to the rules of Dakadania, he belongs to both of us!" said Audrey. "When we get him registered, we will be co-owners. You can hold them if you want."

Caitlin was excited to have captured a tiny person from Earth.

"Who are you, little man?" Caitlin asked.

"I'm Nick Bowman," the tiny man responded.

"How did you get here?" Caitlin asked.

"I'm a comic book artist," Nick replied, "and the world you live in is a graphic novel I created back on Earth!"

"Can you give us more information?" Audrey asked.

"Earlier today, I was at my home overlooking a cliff near the beach in Bullet Bay, California. I was being visited by my best friend, and African-American named James Roberts, and his wife Simone. My wife Stephanie had an envelope that she held up to show everyone.

"This is a notice that Tony got in the mail earlier today," Stephanie excitedly announced, "Nick's graphic novel 'Dakadania' has gone into a second printing because it was so successful, and this is a royalty check to prove it!"

"Nick, that's fantastic!" said James. "Ever since we were in high school I knew you were going places in the comics industry!"

Nick grabbed a bottle of champagne as his wife Stephanie handed out champagne glasses to the other three. Just as Nick popped the cork and began pouring champagne into the glasses of the eagerly awaiting celebrants, the doorbell rang. Stephanie walked to the door and opened it, and a beautiful young woman with a tan complexion, long light brown hair, and hazel eyes stood at the door.

"Can I help you?" Stephanie asked.

"My name is Nirvana. I came from a great distance. I would speak with your husband Nick Bowman."

"Nick, do you know this chick?" Stephanie asked, as Nick, James, and Simone tried to get a good look at her.

"No, but let her in! She can celebrate with us!" said Nick.

Stephanie ushered her in, and Nirvana approached Nick.

"Congratulations on your victory!" said Nirvana. "Having a graphic novel go into a second printing is no small task."

"How did you know about that?" Nick asked. "I only found out myself today!"

"There are many things I know about you!" Nirvana replied.

"Like what?" Nick replied. "And how?"

"I know that you and your wife eloped in Mexico when she was eighteen, but you had a formal wedding six months later where your family attended."

"How could she possibly know that?" Stephanie asked. "Nick, are you involved with this woman?"

"I've never seen her before in my life, I swear!" Nick said. "Nirvana, how did you know that? Not even our closest family or friends knows about that!"

"What I am about to tell you will be difficult for you to believe."

"Try me!" said Nick.

"I am a time traveler from fifty thousand years in the future. I am a college student at a university where I am majoring in sociology and psychology. I have chosen you to take part in my experiment because according to history, you disappeared on or around today and never returned."

"Hey," said James, "That's what happened to Bobby, the main protagonist of Nick's graphic novel!"

Nirvana continued: "I have a way out for you, Nick. I possess a device that can take you anywhere in the universe, or to parallel universes. Wherever you go, I will monitor you and document your actions, but I will be forbidden to interfere."

Nick picked up a copy of his graphic novel. "Could I travel to Dakadania? The world of my graphic novel?"

"Yes, but it would be dangerous there," said Nirvana. "I can not guarantee your safety."

"Those giant children in Nick's graphic novel never killed anyone," said James. "They're not dangerous, they just keep people our size as captives."

"That may be true, " Nirvana replied, "But there's a possibility that you could get accidentally digested or drown in their chyme if one of them swallows you."

"How do you know this lady isn't a fraud?" Simone said. "You should ask her for proof, Nick!"

"Do you have proof?" Nick asked.

Nirvana opened the front door, and her time pod was levitating three feet above the front yard. "Is that proof enough?" Nirvana asked.

"It looks legit!" Nick replied.

"We must hurry, I don't want others from your time period to see my time pod."

Stephanie took Nick by the arm. "Honey, why would you travel to Dakadania?"

"I want to meet Alicia and Christine, the two main giantess characters! And then I could meet up with Bobby and Troy, and join the resistance! I could start rescuing Earth people from the giant children!"

Nirvana pulled out what appeared to be a translucent cube, "Now that I've piqued your curiosity, let me open the dimensional portal!" Nirvana activated the cube, and a dimensional portal appeared.

Stephanie embraced Nick more tightly. "Honey, take me with you!"

"No!" Nick replied, I have to go alone. I would've disappeared any way, according to Nirvana."

Nirvana pulled out some large pills that looked like laundry pods. "If you consume one of these, you will never be able to die of old age!"

Nick took one, James grabbed the other three and took one for himself, and gave the other two to Stephanie and Simone.

"You must step through the portal now, Nick Bowman!" said Nirvana.

"What happens if I refuse to participate in your little experiment?" said Nick.

"Then you will disappear! Nothing you do can prevent your disappearance! I offer you salvation! You can journey to a place of your choosing!"

"She's got a point," said James. "You've got nothing to lose!"

"But if I journey to Dakadania and never return, it would be because of your involvement!" said Nick. "You're personally tampering with history!"

"The laws of society in my era are different than yours, and don't protect you from being forced into a situation like this." said Nirvana. "I can't be prosecuted for causing your disappearance."

"Well, if you put it that way, it looks like I have no choice!" said Nick, picking up the lamp. "I guess I can journey to Dakadania! If I die there, it will be among characters and a society I forged!"

Stephanie grabbed Nick around the shoulders. "Oh, Nick! Take me with you if you go!"

"I can't!" said Nick. "It's too dangerous, Stephanie!"

"He's right!" said Phillip. "Dakadania is a society populated by giant teenagers who exist at a scale 72 times bigger than we are! A six foot tall man from our world would stand exactly an inch tall from the perspective of the giants, And they like to swallow people our size who end up there and puke them back up over and over again! They refer to people of our stature as tummy toys!"

"Yes I know, James, I've read the graphic novel!" said Stephanie. " Nick would print out each page as he finished it, and I would be the first person to read it!"

"I love you, Stephanie," said Nick, as he kissed her for the last time and gave her a hug before stepping through the dimensional portal.

****************************************

"You should've brought your wife," said Audrey, "Couples are worth more money than single captives."

"I love my wife," said Nick, "and I would never expose her to an environment like this."

****************************************

Meanwhile, back at Nick's house, James was watching everything that was happening to Nick on a tablet device provided by Nirvana.

"I'd like to go rescue Nick from those giant girls," said James. "Are the same events in Nick's graphic novel going to occur in that reality he went to?"

"The version of Dakadania I've sent Nick to is a hybrid of the world he created," said Nirvana. "Nick became part of the story, and so will you if you journey there."

"Can you send me to a location where I meet up with the resistance?" James asked.

"That occurs later in the story," Nirvana replied, "but yes, I could send you there."

"So I can meet up with Bobby and Troy, the original protagonists of Nick's graphic novel?" James asked.

"Yes, I'll open the portal now," said Nirvana, and she activated the cube again, and the portal opened.

"I'd ask you to come with me, Simone, but it's just too dangerous!" said James.

"I've got no intention of traveling to Dakadania," said Simone. "But good luck!" Simone kissed James, and he jumped into the portal without her.

"This is a newspaper from six months in the future," said Nirvana. Both Nick Bowman and James Roberts are still missing!"

"So that's it?" said Stephanie. "Our husbands are gone to some whacked out land of giants and we're stuck here on Earth without them for the rest of our lives?"

"That about sums it up!" said Nirvana. "I apologize if that inconveniences you, but this project is my junior thesis, and my whole college career is riding on the outcome of this social experiment!"

Nirvana turned to leave.

"Wait a minute!"" said Simone, James's wife. "Can't you leave that viewer, so we can observe them?"

"Would that be breaking the rules?" Stephanie asked.

Nirvana handed the electronic tablet to Simone. "You can observe them with this! If and when they perish, I'll return to take it back from you. I'm not supposed to be doing this, I'm doing it as a personal favor."

"Thank you so much!" said Simone.

"This tablet belongs to both of you, so don't fight over it, share it!" said Nirvana, as she turned and left through the front door.

Stephanie and Simone watched as Nirvana's time pod ascended up over the beach, and disappeared into the sky.

To Be Continued!

Last edited by SamuelOrona on Thu Dec 20, 2018 11:54 am, edited 2 times in total.

James emerged from the dimensional portal inside a space ship. Nirvana threw the cube to James from the other side of the portal before it collapsed. Two men saw him, and they each pulled a weapon on him as James picked up the cube.

"Whoa, hold on!" said James. "I'm one of the good guys!"

"Who are you?" one of the men asked. "And what is that cube?"

"I'm James Roberts, I'm a friend of a man named Nick Bowman, a comic book artist responsible for creating this strange world of giants! You are Bobby and Troy, the main protagonists of Nick's graphic novel, known as Dakadania. This cube will allow us to travel anywhere in the universe."

The two men put their weapons away.

"You can be of use to us," said Bobby. "In the version of Earth I came from, I'm the graphic novelist who created Dakadania."

"We need to rescue Nick Bowman, he was captured by two giants named Audrey Filchner and Caitlin Snare. That part of the story happened prior to the time we're in now, so we need to travel back through time. Nick emerged right after Caitlin arrived on Dakadania for the first time."

"One thing you need to understand about us if you want to join us," said Troy, "is that we plan on staying on Dakadania to form a resistance against the giants, if you plan on ever returning to Earth, we can't use you."

"I understand loud and clear," said James. "I've read Nick's graphic novel two or three times, I know you two are down for saving people from the giants, Nick and me want to help you, we're trapped here too!"

"We have a computer that hacks into the Dakadanian mainframe," said Bobby. "We can look up Caitlin Snare and find out when she arrived, then journey through temporal space to reach that time. I'm setting the controls for time warp."

Bobby set the controls for time warp, and they emerged nearly instantly above the planet, in geosynchronous orbit above the spot where Caitlin Snare first arrived. From a bird's eye view angle, they could see the events play out as James had first seen them on Nirvana's viewer in Nick's living room.

"We're going to touch down and I want you to let them capture you," said Bobby, "take the cube with you, and we'll monitor you and rescue both you and Nick when the time is right."

"Sounds good to me," said James.

Bobby piloted the flying saucer and within a few minutes, it landed not far from the dorm where Audrey lived. The gull-wing door opened, and James sauntered out. The door closed, and the flying saucer disappeared into the sky. James waved goodbye to his new friends.

James ran toward some bushes and hid the cube Nirvana had given them, then ran toward the area where Audrey and Caitlin had found Nick earlier, and was spotted by them.

"Hey, another one!" said Caitlin, and she sped toward James, knelt down, and scooped him up.

Audrey took off her backpack, and pulled out a small container, just the right size to fit Nick and James inside of. She unscrewed the lid, which had airholes, and dropped them in, then screwed the lid back on and put the container into the backpack.

While Audrey was fiddling with the container, Caitlin walked over and found the hidden cube.

"We need to head to the regional registration office and have them planted with subcutaneous transponders," said Audrey, "so we can track them, and we'll always know where they are."

"I want to swallow one of them!" said Caitlin, as she tossed the cube from hand to hand.

"So do I, but they belong to both of us, so we have to share them."

"Can't we each take one?" Caitlin asked.

"We could, but until we get this sorted out we need to get them registered in both our names and just share them."

"Okay!" said Caitlin.

"Let me tell you how it works on Dakadania," said Audrey. "There is a woman from Thanatar we call 'The Governess' who established this world. Every day, runaways from Thanatar arrive here on Dakadania from a range of time fifty years in the past to fifty years in the future. When we turn eighteen and become legal adults, we return to Thanatar."

"What happens to us while we're here?" Caitlin asked.

"We go to school, just like on Thanatar," Audrey answered. "In this backpack is your schoolgirl uniform, you are required to wear that until you get a high enough grade point average to buy your own clothing."

Caitlin stopped and took the backpack from Audrey and took out the schoolgirl uniform, and looked it over.

"It's a cute outfit!" said Caitlin. "When I get regular clothes, I think I'll wear this to school, and the other clothes when I go out to socialize. So what's the deal with the other clothes?"

"If you get a 2.0 GPA you get some more clothing choices, but if you get a 3.0 GPA you get a wider variety to choose from, and if you get a 3.5 GPA and above, your clothing choices are unlimited!"

"What is this park we're walking through?" Caitlin asked.

"This is the disc golf course, if you get really good at it you can win tokens. Kids with lower GPA's can win tournaments and get enough tokens to go to the fairs that are held several times a year."

"Fairs?" Caitlin asked.

"Yes, but there's a lot of drama there. Cliques formed here, and some girls are popular and they pick on regular girls like you or me. Who knows though, you might become popular here."

Meanwhile, within the container Nick and James were trapped inside of, they pondered their fate.

"Well, scratch your plan to contact Christine and Alicia!" said James. "Do you recognize these two chicks?"

"No!" said Nick. "Dakadania is densely populated, so it would be impossible for even me, the creator of the graphic novel, to know all of the characters!"

"Do you think this significantly reduces our chances for survival?" James asked.

"Without a doubt!" Nick replied. "Maybe I can explain to them that I am from a world where everything that happens here is a work of fiction in a graphic novel I created!"

"Well, it's worth a shot!" James replied. "But we have an ace up our sleeve! I made contact with the resistance, and they brought me here. They're monitoring us. and plan to rescue us eventually."

"The resistance doesn't even form until several chapters into the graphic novel!" said Nick.

"They brought me back in time," James replied. "Not only that, but I hid that cube Nirvana gave us, hopefully Audrey and Caitlin haven't found it!"

Caitlin and Audrey arrived at the registration office, not far from the park. Audrey removed the container containing Nick and James, and zipped up the backpack. A couple of other girls were in line, and when they were done with their order, they left, and Audrey approached the counter.

"We found two tiny people from Earth," said Audrey, "I think there might be a hidden nexus point near the main dimensional gateway to Thanatar in the disc golf park!" Audrey dumped Nick and James onto the counter. "Both me and this girl, Caitlin Snare, found these captives simultaneously, so we would like to register for co-ownership."

A female android sat behind the counter and set an electronic tablet on the counter. The android began to speak to Audrey: "If you are co-owners, neither one of you are authorized to permanently swallow the captives, or you could have your privileges relinquished. Is that understood?"

"Yes!" said Caitlin and Audrey simultaneously.

The android waved a device over Nick and James, and they fell unconscious. The android picked up a machine, and set Nick and James inside, and closed a hatch, so the two men were not visible. After a few seconds, a green light came on and a noise emanated from the machine. The android opened the hatch, and set Nick and James on the counter.

"Their subcutaneous transponders have been successfully implanted!" said the android. She handed Audrey two electronic devices. "One of those is for Caitlin, and one is yours. These will allow you to track your captives if they ever escape, which is unlikely!"

Audrey handed one of the devices to Caitlin. The android waved the device that rendered Nick and James unconscious, but this time, it awakened them. Caitlin set her left hand palm-side up on the counter.

"Surrender to my hand, slaves! Your mistress commands you!" said Caitlin. Nick and James obeyed her, and stepped onto her waiting palm. "My name is Caitlin Snare, and I am your co-owner, along with Audrey Filchner! You will obey us from this day forward!"

"There's something I need to tell you!" said Nick.

"Silence pawn!" Caitlin commanded. "You will speak when spoken to! Do we have an understanding?"

"Yes, mistress!" Nick replied, as he looked at James and shrugged his shoulders.

Caitlin cupped her other hand over Nick and James, and they were easily concealed within her mighty grasp. Caitlin dropped them back into the container Audrey provided, and closed the lid.

"Bossing them around is so satisfying!" said Caitlin, and both her and Audrey began to laugh.

"I need to take you to your dorm," said Audrey.

"Is it nice?" Caitlin asked.

"They're very nice," Audrey replied, "but the housing is assigned. You will be staying with me, but we each get our own rooms. Each newbie gets paired up with a mentor, so you can learn the ways of Dakadania from someone who has been here for a while."

Audrey led Caitlin out of the registration office, and they headed toward the housing units.

Nick and James were tossed around within the container they were trapped inside of, but still managed to carry on a conversation.

"We have to find out if they have the cube!" said James. "But we have to do it without drawing attention to the intrinsic value of the cube!"

When Audrey and Caitlin arrived art their dorm, Caitlin took the schoolgirl uniform and went and changed into it. She entered the living room in her new outfit, and showed it off to Audrey.

"Don't I look cute?" Caitlin asked.

"There is a replicator in your bedroom that can make more, and there's a machine that washes them for you," said Audrey.

"I'm kind of hungry," said Caitlin, "what do we eat around here?"

"First, let's set our captives on the table. I have two more of them. I always let them eat when I eat."

Audrey took the container in the backpack out and dumped Nick and James onto the table, then went into her bedroom and grabbed her other two captives, and placed them near Nick and James. Audrey got up and went to a replicator and ordered four lunches for her captives. There was a small table and some chairs that were built to Nick and James's scale, and Audrey set the food on the little table.

"It's time for the tiny people to eat!" said Audrey. "Caitlin, what do you feel like eating?"

"How about pizza?" Caitlin suggested.

"Uh-uh," said Audrey, "no fun foods without a 3.0 GPA! If you want something like pizza or ice cream, it will cost you a token!"

"But I only have five tokens!" Caitlin replied.

"That's why this place kind of sucks," said Audrey. "You're basically forced to do good in school, or you don't have a life!"

"Can you give me an example of a healthy lunch?" Caitlin asked.

"A roast beef sandwich with fresh spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, and avocado." Audrey replied. "I can give you a menu to look over if you want. The food isn't bad, it just has to meet nutritional requirements!"

"If I get a 3.0 GPA in school," Caitlin asked, "will I have an unlimited amount of junk food I can eat?"

"Maybe you're not from the same Earth as us!" said James. "The giants of Thanatar scour thousands of alternate versions of Earth to capture people, maybe it's the same here on Dakadania!"

Audrey munched on her sandwich while Caitlin swallowed her most recent mouthful. "Is there a way to earn more tokens before I earn a good GPA on my next report card?" Caitlin asked.

"The disc golf course is the best way, but you have to be really good to win tokens," Audrey replied.

"I am good!" said Caitlin. "I played with my family every summer!"

"We can go back out there after we eat, but let me warn you, kids who play that game are really good. You have to be phenomenal to win a tournament! But it's worth it I guess, because if you win the semi-finals you get a thousand tokens."

"How often are there tournaments?" Caitlin asked.

"Every three months!" Audrey replied. "But kids are out there practicing all the time. If you're smart, you're better off getting a 3.5 or above GPA, because then you get unlimited tokens."

Audrey finished her sandwich, then took the cube from Caitlin and held it above Nick and James.

"What is this thing?" Audrey asked.

"It's just a GPS tracking device!" said Nick, as he stood up.

"Then why was it glowing when Caitlin found it?" Audrey asked.

"We can’t tell you,” Nick said.

"We’ll figure out what it is eventually,” Audrey replied.

Nick and James looked at each other with apprehension.

"You might as well tell her the truth," James suggested.

"We are from a version of Earth where Dakadania is a graphic novel I created!" said Nick. "A time traveler came to our world and offered me the chance to visit the world of my creation, so I jumped at the chance!"

"Why would a man of your stature choose to journey to a world of cannibalistic conquerors?" Audrey asked. "We have to employ a multitude of stealthy maneuvers to trap humans from Earth so they can provide us with entertainment!"

Caitlin got up from the table and swallowed the last bite of her sandwich and said, "He's probably lying! He probably found the device here on Dakadania! Human scum!"

"You're probably right, Caitlin! No human in their right mind would ever choose to come here of their own free will! I'll put this cube high up on a shelf until we can figure out what it does, and we can go back to the disc golf park."

"What about the tinies?" Caitlin asked.

"They can stay there on the table, it's not like they can go anywhere!"

Audrey and Caitlin left the dorm.

"We have to reach that cube!" said James.

"It's impossible!" said Derek. "Even Audrey had to stand on her toes to reach that top shelf, we don't stand a chance of reaching it!"

"Do you have your tokens?" Audrey asked Caitlin as they walked toward the park.

"Yeah, why?" Caitlin asked.

"You're probably not going to like this, but it will take all five tokens for you to buy your gear to play disk golf. You need to own all your own equipment in order to play."

"What will five tokens get me?" Caitlin asked.

"All the disks you'll need, plus a canvas bag to carry them in. I hope you're telling the truth about being good at this game."

"I was the best in my neighborhood back on Thanatar!" said Caitlin. "But the games were all amateur, I never won a trophy or anything. I have an Aunt and Uncle who were pros at disk golf, and they taught me."

The girls approached a disk golf shop near the park, where kids could buy sports equipment, Audrey and Caitlin walked in and looked at the equipment.

"Pick out your disks." Audrey said.

There were no other customers in the shop. There were a multitude of colored disks to choose from.

"I need drivers, mid-range disks and putters!" Caitlin said. "How many of each can I get?"

"It's the most popular game played by our race on Dakadania, and it's the only televised game we play. I watch it when it's on. To answer your question, maybe the android behind the counter can help you."

Audrey approached the counter. "How many disks can she get, along with a carrying bag, for five tokens?"

"Three disks per token, and two tokens for a carrying bag!" the android answered.

"That means I can get three of each!" Caitlin carefully picked out the disks she would need to play the game.

"I've got some extra tokens," said Audrey. "In case you need more disks."

"I don't think that will be necessary!" said Caitlin. "By the way, is gambling allowed here on Dakadania?"

"To a certain extent, as long as it involves disk golf or trading captives in a dice game. You can play disk golf for more tokens, but you need to be able to ante up."

Caitlin paid for her equipment, and the two girls left the disk golf shop and headed toward the park.

Meanwhile, back at Audrey and Caitlin's locked dorm, Nick and James were trying in vain to reach the cube on the top shelf.

"The planet where these giant children is from is called Thanatar," said Peter, "and there the giants are known as Titans!"

"Nick wrote and illustrated the graphic novel version of 'Planet of the Titans' before he drew Dakadania!" said James. "He created those worlds!"

"It's imperative that Caitlin and Audrey never find out about the power of that DX cube!" said Nick. "Can the two of you promise never to rat us out?"

"Yeah, us humans have to stick together!" Derek shook hands with Nick.

"Wait a minute," said Peter, "I'm not cool with this!"

"What's the problem?" Nick asked.

"If you created Thanatar and Dakadania, then it's your fault we're stuck here under the dominion of some voracious vixens! If it wasn't for you, we'd be back on Earth living our lives!"

"If it wasn't for Nick," said James, "none of you would exist! The version of Earth you come from would've never been created!"

"He's right, Peter!" said Derek.

"Logically I can understand where you're coming from," said Peter, "but emotionally I still feel violated. Why would you create a world like this? A world where giants swallow people like us and then puke us back up for entertainment?"

"It's been something that he's been into since he was a kid!" said James. "He just likes giant girls rampaging!"

"Why couldn't they be nice giant people?" Peter asked. "Why did you make them so sadistic?"

"I'm telling Audrey about the DX cube when she returns!" said Peter. "I think it would be poetic justice if you, the creator of Dakadania, ended up in the belly of one of the giant girls you created! That would be a fitting punishment for you!"

"If you do, I'll pound you into a pulp!" said Nick. "As humans, we need to stick together!"

Meanwhile, back at the disk golf park, Audrey and Caitlin were on par one. They could see one of the other pars in the distance, and some other kids were playing, but there was no one to interfere with them on par one.

"I'll break out one of my drivers," said Caitlin. She twisted her body and flung the disk, and it glided through the air toward the basket. Caitlin picked up her bag of disks and headed toward the disk she had just thrown. When they reached it, she picked it up and put it in her bag, then took out a mid-range disk and flung it toward the basket. The disk landed fairly close to the basket. The girls approached, and Caitlin picked up the mid-range disk and put it in her bag, and got out a putter and threw it into the basket.

"This was a par four, and you made a basket in three throws!" said Audrey. "Maybe you're really as good as you say you are!"

"Before I got put in a foster home a couple of weeks ago, I was the best player out of all the kids I knew who played disk golf!

"I have ten tokens with me right now," said Audrey, holding the tokens in her hand. "How about if we gamble against those people over there!" Audrey pointed toward the kids on another hole elsewhere in the park. "I doubt they're as good as you!"

"Okay!" said Caitlin. "But what if I lose?"

"Trust me, you won't!" said Audrey. "I may not play this game, but I've watched enough games to know when someone is good, and you're exceptional! You're good enough to be playing in a regional tournament!"

"If you really think I'm that good, then let's go for it!" said Caitlin. "But if I win, do I get to keep any of the tokens?"

"If we double my ten tokens, you get ten and I get ten!" said Audrey.

"That sounds fair!" said Caitlin, and they walked toward the other players on the field. A boy and a girl were playing, and Audrey approached the boy.

"My friend Caitlin here just stepped out of the portal today, and I'm her mentor Audrey Filchner. She wants to gamble for tokens against you! I've got ten tokens, double or nothing?"

The boy and girl started laughing. "An F.O.P.?" the boy asked.

"What's that?" Caitlin asked Audrey.

"It's an acronym that means 'Fresh Out of the Portal." Audrey replied.

"I've got ten tokens," said the boy. "My name is Ricky, I agree to your challenge!"

Meanwhile, back at the dorm, Nick and James were getting to know Derek and Peter.

"So how did you guys end up here?" James asked.

"We were in a plane that was about to crash, and we were pulled through a dimensional wormhole to this place," said Derek.

"Yeah, we probably would've died if we didn't end up here." said Peter.

"Nick, are all the victims on Dakadania people who would've otherwise died on Earth?" James asked "I don't remember that in your graphic novel."

"It was in the rough draft of the written version, but when I started drawing the graphic novel, that information seemed extraneous, so I omitted it."

"Audrey had other captives that she lost gambling with other thunder children already," said Derek, "and when I talked to them they all had stories similar to mine. They were all in near death situations when they were brought here. Without being pulled through a wormhole, they would've all perished back on Earth."

"We need something sticky to climb the wall to get to that cube!" said Nick. "Do you know if Audrey chews gum?"

Back at the park, Caitlin finished the game, beating the boy and his girlfriend.

"Here's your five tokens," said the boy.

"Hey!" said Caitlin, "you owe me ten!"

"I was just kidding!" said the boy, "here's ten! You're a real hustler! You could hit the big time with those skills!"

Caitlin packed up her disks in the canvas bag and slung it over her shoulder. She put five of the tokens in her pocket, and held out the other five to Audrey.

"Here! Take five tokens!" said Caitlin.

"No, you keep them!" said Audrey. "You earned them!"

"Where can we go spend some of them?" Caitlin asked.

"I'll show you where there is a store nearby," said Audrey. "There is a monorail that can take you just about anywhere, but this store is within walking distance. Maybe after school tomorrow I can show you the monorail system."

"What grade will I be in?" Caitlin asked.

"You're thirteen, right?" Audrey asked.

"Yes!" said Caitlin.

"Everyone that age pretty much starts out in seventh grade," said Audrey. "I'm in eighth, but I've been here a while. When you've been here at least a year, you'll get to mentor a new girl from Thanatar just like I'm doing for you!"

"Cool!" said Caitlin, and they rounded a corner and came to the store Audrey had spoken of.

"Here it is!" said Audrey. "Don't go too crazy in there!"

Caitlin entered the store and saw that there were hundreds of choices of different candies and pastries to choose from. An android behind the counter waited for her to order.

"I'll take a pint of ice cream, a candy bar, and a pack of bubble gum!" said Caitlin.

"That will be three tokens!" the android responded.

Caitlin paid the android, and took her sack of goodies and exited the store.

"I got you a candy bar!" said Caitlin, handing the candy bar to Audrey.

"Thanks!" said Audrey.

When Audrey and Caitlin entered the dorm, Caitlin was blowing a bubble with her bubble gum that she was chewing. Nick, James, Derek, and Peter stopped what they were doing and waited for the girls to address them.

"Slaves!" said Audrey. "How have you been conducting yourselves while we've been gone?"

"They want that DX cube you took from them!" said Peter. "It opens dimensional portals to other places, which would allow them to escape from you!"

"He's kidding around with you, Caitlin!" said Nick.

Audrey looked up at the cube that was on the top shelf. "Oh, really?" Audrey said, as she stood on her toes and retrieved the cube. "Will it allow people of our size to use it, or just tinies from Earth?"

"I don't know!" said Peter. "You might as well try!"

Audrey grabbed the DX cube and said, "I command you to open a dimensional portal!"

An energy field big enough for the giants to step through opened.

"It worked!" said Audrey, as she set the cube on the floor. "Open another portal on the other side of the room!"

Another portal opened, and Audrey stepped through the first dimensional portal that had opened, and emerged from the second one.

Audrey deactivated the DX cube, and grabbed it again, then set it on the table where the captives stood. "Now we just need to keep it high enough so the tinies can't get it!" said Audrey.

Just then, there was a message on the computer, and a light was blinking.

"What's that?" Audrey asked herself, then she clicked on the computer with her left hand.

"It's an instant message from Ricky, the boy you defeated in disk golf today!" said Audrey. She read the message out loud: "I have come to realize that I like you more than the other girls, would you like to go out some time?" Audrey jumped up and down and screamed really loud. "He's impressed that I discovered someone as talented as you are at disk golf."

After Audrey placed the DX cube high on the shelf, she scooped up the four captives and placed them within a container that had a bathroom, beds, and a table and chairs. She shut the lid on the container, and placed it on a lower level of the same shelf the cube was on. Audrey turned on the television, and tuned it in to a disk golf game.

"Watch this game, and try to see if you're as good as these players!" said Audrey. "I'm surprised you're so good! Disk golf isn't as popular back on Thanatar!"

"My mom's sister ended up on Dakadania when she was a kid, after running away from home. That's where she met my Uncle Richard, the boy who grew up to become the man she eventually married."

"Are you serious?" Audrey asked.

"Yeah!" said Caitlin. "So they got all of us kids into playing disk golf because they got good at it when they were on Dakadania. Funny thing though, I never believed in Dakadania when I was growing up, I always thought my Aunt Cindy and Uncle Richard were making it all up!"

Meanwhile, within the plastic container, Nick and James paced back and forth as Derek and Peter watched.

"Have any of you ever broken out of this container?" Nick asked.

"I know it can be done," Derek replied, "the guys who were here before me were able to do it."

"Have you tried it yourself successfully?" Nick asked.

"No," said Derek, "but I've seen other captives do it. I would advise only doing it when Audrey and Caitlin are away from the dorm for an extended period of time."

"You have to be absolutely sure they're gone!" said Peter.

"I should beat the crap out of you, Peter!" said Nick. "If you want to escape from this world so badly, that DX cube was your ticket out of here!

"I noticed Caitlin chewing gum," said James. "Nick, don't make it obvious why we need it, but we're going to need Caitlin to leave us with a piece of chewed up gum that we can use to climb the wall to reach the top shelf!"

"Derek," said Nick, "explain the technique those other captives taught you for getting out of this container!"

"It takes two of us, and you climb up the air-holes and knock the lid up at the corner." said Derek. "You won't be able to un-do the other four sides, but you won't need to, because there should be just enough space for one person to climb up and out."

"Thanks, bro!" said Nick, hugging Derek.

"Can you answer me one question?" Derek asked.

"Yeah, go for it!" Nick replied.

"If you really created this world as a comic book artist, and a time traveler approached you and gave you a chance to go anywhere, why would you choose Dakadania? There are so many other places you could've chosen!"

"I thought I could work the system," Nick replied. "In my graphic novel, there were two Dakadanian girls named Christine and Alicia. I figured that since I created them, I knew them well enough that I could manipulate them and get better treatment. Of course, things didn't go as planned, and we got captured by Audrey and Caitlin instead!"

"Who would you rather get swallowed by out of those two?" Derek asked.

"Swallowed?" Nick asked. "I'm a survivor! I created this place out of my imagination! I can't get swallowed!"

"Looks like he's living in denial!" said Peter. "They both are!"

"Sooner or later, every last one of us is going to end up inside the belly of a Dakadanian girl!" said Derek. "I've already accepted my fate, so should the two of you!"

"If I can reach that DX cube," said Nick, "I can break all four of us out of here!"

"How will you do that?" James asked. "You don't know how to operate it, neither of us do yet!"

"That's true!" said Nick. "But if Audrey could figure it out on the first try, why can't we?"

Meanwhile, Caitlin was studying the game on television with Audrey.

"To tell you the truth, I think I'm better than any of the people they've shown so far." said Caitlin.

"So your Aunt and Uncle were here when they were kids?" Audrey asked.

"Yeah, why?" Caitlin replied.

"Every day, kids from fifty years in the past all the way to fifty years in the future are pulled through portals to Dakadania to replace the people who turned eighteen and returned to Thanatar." said Audrey. "Now, every day the period of fifty years ago moves one day farther in the future."

Within a brief span of time, Audrey found them. "I've located them! They live across town, but we can get there on the monorail!"

"Let me talk to them!" said Caitlin. "My Aunt Cindy first!"

Audrey manipulated the control console until a girl's face appeared on the monitor.

"Hello?" the girl said.

"Hi, I'm Caitlin! I'm your future niece! I'm your sister's daughter!"

"Are you kidding me?" said Cindy. "I've heard of relatives connecting here, but I never thought it would happen to me!"

"The whole time I was growing up, you told me about Dakadania, but I never believed you!" said Caitlin.

"How good are you at disk golf?" Cindy asked. "If there's one thing I would teach my nieces and nephews, is to practice until you're a champion! You can live like a god here if you're good at disk golf!"

"I'm the best, Aunt Cindy!" Caitlin replied.

"Give me your address, and I'll come over on the monorail!" said Cindy.

"I'll do that!" said Audrey, and she typed out the address 238 Newport street and texted it to Cindy. "You should have it now!"

"I'll be there really soon!" said Cindy, and the computer monitor went blank.

"This is so exciting!" said Caitlin. "I'm actually going to meet my Mom's sister when she was my age!"

Less than twenty minutes later, Cindy showed up with her boyfriend Richard. Cindy had a plastic container in her hand with captives inside, and rang the doorbell. Audrey opened the door, and Caitlin hugged Cindy.

"I brought my captives over so we could celebrate!" said Cindy. "We can have a swallow fest!"

Caitlin went and got the captives that were in the container owned by Audrey.

"When I first got here, me and Audrey caught two of them, but we are registered as co-owners." said Caitlin.

Caitlin dumped out her captives onto a table, and Cindy dumped hers out there, too. Tony, Phillip, Derek and Peter were greeted by Cindy's four captives.

"Captives," said Audrey, "introduce yourselves to Cindy's captives!"

"I'm Nick," said Nick, "and this is my friend James."

"I'm Gary," said an obese man, "and this is my friend Jason." Jason was of a normal build.

"How can you be sure you're my niece?" Cindy asked. "You have me at a disadvantage."

Nick and James were astonished when they saw Bobby and Troy. As the giants went on with their conversation and ignored the Earth people, James whispered to Nick: "It's Bobby and Troy, the protagonists from your Dakadania graphic novel!"

"Maybe they have the lamp from the graphic novel!" said Nick. "The time traveler they encountered gave it to them, while we ended up with the DX cube!"

"Unless Cindy or Richard took it away from them!" said James.

The giants continued their conversation.

"My mother Macie is your older sister, and your mother Hazel is my maternal grandmother," said Caitlin. "Like I was telling Audrey, you and Uncle Richard taught me about Disk Golf from a young age, to the point where I became a master at it! Funny though, I never believed in Dakadania until I arrived here!"

Cindy gripped Richard's hand tighter at hearing Caitlin's verification that she and Richard would successfully carry their relationship back to Thanatar after leaving Dakadania.

"How good are you?" Cindy asked.

"She just hustled someone at the disk golf park nearest to our dorm!" said Audrey.

"Back home, nobody could beat me!" said Caitlin.

Cindy poured out a pile of tokens with her right foot.

"What's the story with all these tokens?" Audrey asked.

"Two of my captives, Bobby and Troy, had a lamp that grants wishes when me and Ricky caught those two captives together," said Cindy. "I wished for a thousand tokens. Do you want to make a wish?"

Cindy held out a tiny (to the giants) lamp that was built to human scale. Audrey retrieved the lamp from Cindy's hand.

"You just rub the lamp and make a wish!" said Audrey.

Audrey rubbed the lamp and said, "I wish for my relationship with Ricky to grow stronger when we return to Thanatar!"

Cindy looked at Richard and smiled.

"You just wasted a wish!" said Caitlin. "In Earth mythology each person only gets a total of three wishes!"

"I just wanted to make sure!" said Audrey. "Maybe I'll get married and stay married to Ricky when we get back to Thanatar just as your aunt and uncle did!"

"You said something about a swallow fest," said Caitlin, "is that a real thing, or just a term you made up?"

"It's real," said Cindy. "When people have enough captives to do it, they get together and have a swallow fest."

"Do we have enough captives?" said Caitlin. "I've never swallowed one before!"

"Not even back on Thanatar?" Cindy asked. "I swallowed one of my Mom's captives and puked him up before I came here."

"No, not even on Thanatar!" said Caitlin.

"Well, pick one of my captives out, and give it a shot!" said Cindy.

Caitlin approached the captives. Out of Cindy's four captives, Gary and Jason were trembling, but Bobby and Troy were unafraid.

"I don't want to pick one who looks afraid!" said Caitlin.

"Well, they're all afraid!" said Cindy. "Wouldn't you be if you found yourself trapped in a world of titanic teenagers who wanted to devour you?"

"I guess you're right!" said Caitlin, and she picked Bobby, the muscular younger man. "I don't want one who is too big, this one is skinnier!"

With one hand Caitlin held Bobby, and with the other hand she took out her piece of gum and stuck it on the wall next to the shelf where the captives were kept. "You're about to embark on an epic one-way journey to the depths of my teenage belly!" said Caitlin to the (to her) one-inch tall man, and she dropped him onto her waiting tongue. The fruity smell of the bubble gum Caitlin had been chewing washed over Bobby as Caitlin forced him to the back of her mouth, and she quickly swallowed him. When he was safely past her gullet and down her esophagus, Caitlin stuck her tongue out, as if to prove her victory. The other giants in the room started clapping.

"That was the fastest I've ever seen a newbie swallow a captive!" said Cindy. "Are you sure you haven't had practice at this?"

Inside Caitlin's belly, a battle for survival was taking place. Bobby was trying to conserve his air, knowing that his efforts at survival would be in vain. He punched and kicked at the stomach walls, but to no avail. He was swimming around in what remained of what Caitlin had eaten for lunch. He would only emerge from his murky prison when Caitlin chose to vomit him up.

Caitlin lifted her blouse, revealing her tummy. "I think I can feel him struggling inside of me!"

"Yeah," said Cindy. "It just makes the victory more satisfying!"

Nick motioned to the piece of gum stuck to the wall, and made sure James saw it. James acknowledged that he was aware of the gum's location, but the two of them tried not to draw attention to it.

"Are these the same guys who you made contact with when you first got here?" Nick asked James.

"Yes!" said James. "I don't remember them ever being owned by a Cindy or a Richard in your graphic novel! What's going on?"

"Nirvana must have skewed the storyline when she created this hybrid version of Dakadania!" said Nick. "Now we have no idea what's going to happen in the story, or to us!"

"A flying saucer!" said James. "Remember that comic you did about those people who were traveling around in that flying saucer?"

"Yes!" Nick replied. "That was a prelude to 'Planet of the Titans' before I got around to working on the actual graphic novel. In the final draft, I changed it to a space plane in the future."

"If we get that lamp and wish for one of those, and we're home free!" said James.

"That could get so addictive!" said Caitlin. "I want to swallow another one!" Caitlin reached down and grabbed Nick at random.

"Wait for Cindy to make her second wish!" said Audrey, not noticing that the captive Caitlin had grabbed was one of the two that Audrey co-owned.

"I wish for ten thousand tokens!" said Cindy, and a multitude of tokens rained down next to her, and landed on the floor. Cindy knelt down and scooped up the tokens and stuck them in her purse. Cindy stood up and handed the lamp back to Audrey. "I want to save my last wish for something good!"

"Would you like to wish for something, Richard?" Audrey asked.

"I didn't bring any containers to put tokens in, and that's the only thing I would really wish for," said Richard. "Maybe I should just wait until I think of something."

Audrey placed the lamp on the shelf, but inattentively stuck it on a lower shelf instead of the highest shelf.

Caitlin held Nick above her mouth as she tilted her head back, and said: ""Prepare to surrender to the belly of a sadistic teenage goddess!" Then she dropped him into her wet mouth. He could smell the faint odor of the bubble gum she had been chewing, and his world grew black as Caitlin clamped her mouth shut and forced him to the back of her mouth with her mighty tongue. In seconds, he was swallowed, and found himself sliding down her esophagus. He dropped down into her belly, where he was greeted by Bobby, who still somehow managed to stay alive.

"I can't believe it might end like this!" said Nick. "I refuse to accept this! I created these juvenile juggernauts! They can't destroy me!"

"This is how it is for all of us!" said Bobby. "Just deal with it!"

Audrey mentally counted the captives that remained, and realized something. "Caitlin, did you swallow one of the two captives we found together?"

"Yes!" said Caitlin. "The one named Nick!"

"You have to vomit him up right now!" said Audrey. "He's the one who owns that DX cube, and we might need to know more about how it works!"

"Seriously?" Caitlin asked. "You want me to give up my conquest?"

"You were going to have to puke up your captives eventually any way," said Audrey, "we're conquerors, but we're not killers!"

Audrey went to a drawer and pulled out an electronic device. It resembled a weapon. "This is a neural stimulator, it will stimulate the parts of your brain that induce vomiting." Audrey pointed the device at Caitlin's head, and pulled the trigger. Audrey got a plastic bucket, and set it in front of Caitlin.

Within a few seconds, Caitlin started to gag.

Inside Caitlin's belly, the whole stomach Nick and Bobby were contained in began to rumble and quake. The chyme they were swimming in was forced upwards rapidly, and the two men were thrust up through Caitlin's esophagus, through her mouth and out into the daylight and downwards into the plastic bucket.

"They both survived!" said Caitlin, as she reached down and grabbed both Nick and Bobby. Caitlin kissed both of them and said, "You guys stink!" Then she set them on the table with the other captives. Audrey and Cindy both laughed when Caitlin made the comment about her captives stinking. "How many captives have you swallowed here on Dakadania, Aunt Cindy?"

"I've swallowed the four I have, dozens of times," said Cindy. "You would think it gets old, but the level of excitement never diminishes." Cindy raised her blouse, revealing a tight abdominal region. "I try to stay in shape, to give my captives a little bit of a thrill. When they see my abs, they know they're getting vanquished by a true conqueror!"

Caitlin lifted her blouse slightly, revealing her abdominal muscles, which were competitive with Cindy's. "Aunt Cindy, you've been having me do bicycles and crunches for my abs since I was ten!"

"You're definitely my niece!" said Cindy. "You should show your captives your abs before you swallow them! It tantalizes them and strikes fear into their tiny hearts at the same time!"

"Do captives enjoy getting swallowed?" Caitlin asked. "I've talked to boys back on Thanatar, and they all wish they could be from Earth and end up as my captive."

"Boys on Thanatar and Dakadania have all been genetically engineered to be submissive, just as all the girls have been engineered to be dominant! "

"Really?" Caitlin asked.

"Yes," said Cindy, "but people from Earth aren't all like us. Maybe one out of ten guys is submissive, and an even smaller number of women are dominant like us! Bottom line, most of them fear us!"

"Whoever runs this planet should make sure all the captives are submissive," said Caitlin. "That would make them easier to control!"

"You would have to talk to the Governess about that, Caitlin." said Cindy. "How about I use some of my wish tokens to treat us all to a night on the town?"

"Sounds awesome!" said Audrey.

"Yeah!" said Richard.

"Where can we go?" Caitlin asked.

"There are a ton of arcades and malt shops and restaurants where we can spend our tokens," said Audrey as she scooped up all the captives and stuck them in their container and shoved the container onto the shelf just below the level where the lamp was currently located. Cindy scooped up her tokens and put them in her purse, then the three girls and Richard left the dorm. Nick and James were alone with the other captives.

"That gum is still on the wall!" said Nick. "If I can reach the lamp, I can wish for a flying saucer just like the one in that comic I drew!"

"But where can we go after that?" James asked. "We can't go back to Earth, because history remembers us as missing."

"I know of nexus points all over Dakadania," said Nick. "When I created the graphic novel I made a map on the inside back cover, and I have it memorized. If we can find one of the nexus points, we can go back to Earth and try to live incognito!"

"Do you think that could work?" James asked.

"If we hide from everyone who knew us, we can blend in and we could still go down in history as missing!"

"It sounds like a long shot, but if you think this plan will work, I've got your back!" said James.

Meanwhile, Caitlin, Audrey, Cindy and Richard were on their way to the part of town where there were businesses where they could spend their tokens. Their first stop was a waffle house. The four of them sat down at a table and placed their orders. Unlike Earth, the android brought them their food almost instantly after placing their orders.

"I'll pay for everyone's food today, since I have so many tokens." said Cindy. "It's my treat!"

Caitlin, Audrey, and Richard thanked her.

"What's school going to be like tomorrow?" Caitlin asked. "Is it like back on Thanatar?"

"Kind of," said Audrey. "But all the teachers are androids. You can still get in trouble though, for fighting or not getting good grades."

"What can they do to you if you mess up?" Caitlin asked in between bites of her waffles.

"Your privileges can get suspended." Audrey answered.

"What's the boy situation here?" Caitlin asked. "I know Aunt Cindy is dating Uncle Richard, and they met here, but how common is that?"

"It's very uncommon for a relationship to start out on Dakadania and extend back to Thanatar," said Audrey. "The girls here would want that to happen, but the guys mainly want quick relationships while they're here."

"Hey, don't speak for all of us!" said Richard. "I plan on marrying Cindy."

"I wasn't including you," said Audrey, "I just meant most guys here are just looking for a quick fling. There's also a lot of inter-generational dating here. Cindy and Richard appear to be from the same time, but there are other couples who are twenty years or more removed from one another."

"Really?" said Caitlin. "That's kind of weird."

"I know of a girl who came from a family where her father met her mother on Dakadania when they were here as kids, but she was twenty-five years younger than him. He actually waited for her to grow up back on Thanatar, and never had any other relationships!"

"How romantic!" said Caitlin.

Cindy started coughing because there was information she wanted to share with Caitlin while she had been chewing.

"Don't get involved with guys too much older or younger than you, Caitlin." said Cindy. "If they're too much older than you they might get married two or three times before you reach adulthood, and if they're too much younger than you, they'll just leave you for someone younger when they meet up with you back on Thanatar!"

"How do I know a guy isn't lying to me about what time he's from?" Caitlin asked.

"Every time you e-mail him or private message him, there will be a profile page that tells you what the date was on Thanatar when he arrived here." said Audrey.

"No one here can lie about their age and get away with it!" said Cindy. "Me and Richard are from the same year!" Cindy and Richard looked into each other's eyes and smiled.

"You shouldn't be concerned with getting a boyfriend right now," said Audrey. "If you're planning on playing disk golf to earn tokens as well as going to school, your schedule is going to be full as it is."

"She's right, said Cindy, "if you find someone, it'll happen, but you don't need to worry about making it happen. Any time you could be spending with a boy you should be spending that time practicing disk golf after school."

The four of them finished their food and got up to leave.

"Where to now?" Caitlin asked.

"How about an arcade?" said Audrey. "Maybe we could win some captives from Earth!"

There was an arcade not too far from the waffle house, and the quartet headed over there. They walked in, and Audrey pointed out one of the games where you could win captives.

"This involves disks!" said Cindy. "You don't have to pay me back for any tokens of mine you use to win. But if you win a lot, let me have one or two of them."

"Okay!" said Caitlin as Audrey inserted a token into the game slot. Three disks dropped out of a compartment, each one a different color; one was purple, one was green, and the other was orange. There was a basket on the far side of the arcade, and the goal was to make a basket with the disks, just like in a game of disk golf. Caitlin threw the orange disk, and the disk glided into the basket perfectly. Audrey, Cindy, and Richard cheered for her.

Caitlin took the purple disk and threw it, and it also glided into the basket. Cindy got Caitlin's attention and pointed to a container built into the game where there were captives from Earth. Caitlin lifted her blouse, revealing her belly button, and rubbed her tummy in a taunting gesture to the captives. Audrey and Cindy laughed at this. Caitlin got the last disk, the green one, and took aim. She tilted her arm back and threw it, and the disk glided perfectly into the basket like the previous two. A multitude of different colored lights went on at the top of the game console, and bells and whistles went off.

"You won!" said Audrey. "You can choose your captive now!"

"I want that cute one right there!" said Caitlin, and an android that maintained the arcade came over with a key and unlocked the cage. The captive that Caitlin had pointed to was forced into an evacuation cubicle, where he was thrust downward into the slot where Caitlin easily retrieved him. Caitlin kissed her captive.

"You have to register him now," said Audrey. "He needs to be fitted with a transponder so he can be tracked if he escapes!"

"How can we track him?" Caitlin asked, as they walked to the registration counter.

"There's a program we can use back at the dorm to track them on the computer." said Audrey. "Anywhere they go on Dakadania will correspond with a latitude and longitude that we will be able to see."

"Suppose we had a captive who escaped, and he got pretty far away?" Caitlin asked. "What could we do then?"

"We could report them to the Air patrol, and when they captured him, they would deliver him to our door!"

"Cool!" said Caitlin.

To Be Continued!

Last edited by SamuelOrona on Thu Dec 20, 2018 11:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

Not long after Caitlin and the other giants had left, the captives were able to get the lid of their container off just enough to climb out. Nick, James, Bobby and Troy and Audrey's two other captives, Derek and Peter, had taken off their shirts and tied them together to form a rope, which Nick was using to try to retrieve the piece of gum. The gum was massive, about the size of three basketballs. The shirt on the end was tied into a lasso, and Nick was trying to hook it onto the piece of gum.

After about twenty attempts, the improvised lasso hooked onto the gum. Nick pulled on the shirts that were tied together, and the end tightened around the gum. Nick pulled with great force, and the gum came undone and shot over to where they were on the table. Nick began breaking off large chunks and lining them up on the top of the table they were standing on. After getting about twenty pieces the size of softballs, he began sticking them to the wall like rungs on a ladder. Audrey had left the lamp on the next shelf above them, so it wouldn't be too difficult to make the ascension.

Nick reached the shelf where the lamp was, and hopped up onto his feet. He approached the lamp, and picked it up. "For my first wish, I want a working flying saucer from the Prelude to Planet of the Titans comic I made before I made the Planet of the Titans graphic novel!" Instantly, there was a flying saucer on the shelf where Nick stood. It was huge by a human perspective, but to a Dakadanian girl it would have seemed like a toy.

Nick grabbed the DX cube, which had been close to the lamp, and activated the gull-wing door and entered, with the lamp and the cube in his hands. The control console was shining with multi-colored blinking lights, and there were several read-out monitors and digital gauges.

"It's just like I drew it in the comic!" said Nick. "It's capable of time warp!"

"This is the same saucer I was in when I first jumped through Nirvana's dimensional portal," said James.

It took about half an hour for Nick to figure out how to work the control console. He shut the gull-wing door, and piloted the craft up and off the shelf, then landed it on the table, and opened the gull-wing door. The other men entered the flying saucer. When Peter tried to enter, Nick stopped him.

"You sold us out to the thunder children," said Nick, "so you're staying behind!"

"I'll take my chances!" said Nick, closing the gull wing door and leaving Peter out on the table. "What should we do now?" Nick asked.

"We should make our escape!" said James. "Use the lamp to wish for the front door of this dorm to disintegrate!"

"That won't work," said Nick.

"Why not?" James asked.

"This society is extremely technologically advanced," Nick explained. "If you wished for the front door to disintegrate, it would be replaced a millisecond later by a new door identical to the first one! Don't forget, I created this world!"

"If we don't figure out how to escape from this dorm, you might die on this world, too!" said James. "Do you have a plan of action?"

"I say we wait for the girls to return, then we gun the engines of this saucer and escape through the front door as they are entering!"

"Are you sure there's no other way?" James asked.

"There's no other way without wasting another wish!" Nick replied.

Meanwhile, back at the arcade, Caitlin was busy winning her second captive with the disk throwing game. She was on her last disk, she had made her first two into the basket, and she twisted back and followed through, releasing the disk. It sailed cleanly into the basket, and the lights went on and the machine made noises like it had done the first time. The android came over and unlocked the cage holding the captives, and Caitlin made her choice.

"That one! He's not as cute as the first one I won, but he's cuter than the others in that cage!"

Caitlin retrieved her captive and held him up to Cindy. "Didn't we have a deal? I don't have to pay you back any tokens if I gave you the second captive I won?"

"Yeah!" said Cindy, holding out her hand, and Caitlin gave her the second captive. Cindy went to the registration desk.

"Audrey," said Caitlin, "why don't you try to win a captive?"

"I'm not as skilled as you!" said Audrey. "It might seem easy to you, but that's because you've spent years practicing disk golf. I've only been here for a couple of months, and I'm not as good as you are."

"Uncle Richard?" Caitlin asked, "What about you?"

"Same here," Richard replied. "By the time I get good at disk golf, it'll be time for me to return to Thanatar!"

"Then I guess we're done here for today," said Caitlin. "When Aunt Cindy finishes registering her captive, we can leave. I'd like to come back when I have tokens of my own to spare, I had fun!"

A few minutes later, Audrey, Caitlin, Cindy, and Richard left the arcade and headed back toward Audrey and Caitlin's dorm.

Back at the dorm, Nick had his hands above the control console. Ready for takeoff as soon as the girls arrived home. When they finally did arrive, the door slid open, and Nick gunned the engines and sent the flying saucer straight out through the open doorway. The saucer headed out and up at a steep angle, then Nick straightened out the flight pattern so it was horizontal when it got some altitude.

"We did it!" said James. "We're home free!"

"Not so fast!" said Nick. "As soon as they realize we've escaped, they're going to call the air patrol on us! We have to get to a nexus point that will take us back to Earth!"

"How fast can you find a nexus point?" James asked.

"On the map I told you about earlier, I remember the nearest of the nexus point gateways that link Earth and Dakadania! I just hope we can reach it before the air patrol uses a tractor beam on us! We've been implanted with subcutaneous transponders that they can track us with, no matter where we are on Dakadania!"

Back in Audrey and Caitlin's dorm, Audrey was frantically punching information into her computer. "I've given the air patrol the transponder frequencies for Nick and James! Can you see now why it was so important to get them registered?"

"Yes!" Caitlin replied. "How often do escapes like this happen?"

"Almost never!" Audrey replied. "And remember, this isn't an escape, it's an escape attempt! The air patrol won't let them get away!"

"How long will it take for the air patrol to get dispatched?" Caitlin asked.

"Almost immediately!" Audrey answered.

Back in the saucer, Nick shouted to James: "Do you know how to work the scanners like I taught you?"

"Yes!" James replied. "We've got an air vehicle, very massive, approaching from behind! How far 'till we reach the nexus point?"

"We're not far from suicide point!" said Nick. "People who jump off that cliff on Earth end up on Dakadania, but if we fly in the opposite direction, upwards, then we should end up back on Earth!"

"Don't they have some kind of tractor beams at the bottom of the cliff to capture the people who jump off?" James asked.

"Yes!" said Nick. "That's why I'm going to have to fly super fast and then shoot up at a steep angle to go up and through the dimensional vortex!"

"Well, you'd better hurry!" said James. "The vehicle on our tail is gaining on us!"

Back in Audrey and Caitlin's dorm, Cindy and Richard watched in anticipation as the air patrol vehicle closed in on Nick's flying saucer.

"I feel partially responsible!" said Audrey. "If I would've just taken that stupid lamp with us, they never would've been able to wish for that flying vehicle that allowed them to escape!"

"It's my fault too!" said Caitlin. "I left my gum on the wall and they must've used it to scale the wall to reach the next level of the shelf!"

The four of them watched in unison as the air patrol vehicle got closer to the flying saucer.

"They're almost close enough to engage the tractor beam!" said Audrey.

"Where are they steering to?" said Cindy. "They're flying low to the ground, and they're heading straight toward that cliff!"

"There's a dimensional nexus point that leads to Earth near that cliff," said Richard, "I think they're heading for it!"

The saucer banked vertically at a high rate of speed, and some tractor beams kicked in, but the saucer disappeared through the dimensional vortex before they could engage the saucer. The air patrol vehicle arced away, to avoid penetrating the vortex. Audrey, Caitlin, Cindy and Richard watched the event unfold live on Audrey's computer monitor.

"They've escaped to Earth!" said Audrey, and words confirming this appeared on the screen.

"But we can still track them, can't we?" Caitlin asked.

"Only if they return to Dakadania!" said Audrey.

"Do you think they'll ever return?" Caitlin asked.

"If they do, they'll be captured and brought back to us!" said Audrey. "If they try to have those subcutaneous transponders surgically removed, microscopic nanobots with the transponder signature will be released into their bloodstream, and if they ever end up back here, it will be like the transponders were never removed!"

The group erupted in laughter at this assurance of their victory, if and when Nick and James ever returned to Dakadania.

Meanwhile, the saucer shot into the sky above Earth!

"We made it!" said Nick, as he leveled the saucer and flew horizontally. "I know of some sand dunes near Bullet Bay where we can hide the flying saucer!"

Nick flew along the coast until he arrived above the sand dunes on the outskirts of Bullet Bay, and he landed the saucer. The gull-wing door opened, and the men stepped out.

"This is where me and James are from, our place is a walking distance from here." said Nick. "After all we've been through, maybe we should exchange phone numbers or something, so we can reconnect and reminisce about our experience on Dakadania!"

The men all exchanged phone numbers, but James had a question. "If history remembers us as missing, wouldn't it be dangerous to try to go back to our old houses?"

"James is right!" said Nick. "We can't reconnect with our wives or family at any cost! Could we stay with one of you guys?"

"You could stay with me," said Derek. "My family owns a spread of land outside L.A. where you could land the saucer and keep it concealed."

"Then let's go there!" said Nick, and they entered the saucer again. Derek told Tony how to get to his place, and within an hour, they landed there. The men got out and went into Derek's house, where Derek's wife greeted him.

"I thought you were dead!" said Derek's wife.

"We were stranded on a world of giants!" said Derek. "From what I know, we were the first people ever to escape from that horrible place!"

After eating dinner, the men crashed out and fell asleep. The next morning, Derek informed Nick and James that the local library was located nearby if they wanted to get out and do something.

"I even have a library card you can use!" said Derek, handing the card to James. Derek also gave James the number to his land line in case something happened. James took off after breakfast and found the library where Derek had said it was. The first thing that drew his attention was a huge map of the United States.

"The state of Remington?" James asked out loud. "This has got to be some kind of a joke!" James approached a librarian and asked her about the map. "Is that map some kind of a hoax?"

"No, that is an accurate map!" said the old librarian, as if she thought there was something wrong with James's mind.

"If that's different, then there might be other things that are different, too!" said James, to himself. Then he addressed the librarian: "Can you direct me to a book that lists all of the U.S. Presidents?"

The old woman went to a shelf and got a book, and handed it politely to James. he opened it and looked through it, and when he came to where President Obama should be, there was a photo of a man who looked like Denzel Washington.

"I've got to show this to Nick!" said James to himself. "We're not on our Earth, we're on some kind of alternate version of Earth from his graphic novels!"

Back at Derek's, Nick was trying to help out by doing some chores. The phone rang, and no one was around, so he answered it.

"Nick, is that you?" James asked.

"Yeah James, what's up?" Nick asked.

"You've got to get down here to the library right away!"

"Why?" Nick asked. "What's up?"

"We're not on Earth! At least, not our version of Earth! We're stuck in an alternate version of Earth from one of your graphic novels!"

"Why do I have to go down there?" Nick asked. "Why can't you tell me anything I need to know over the phone?"

"Because I want you to see the proof! Just get down here!"

"I'll be right there after In finish sweeping up this kitchen," said Nick. "Bye!"

Nick finished what he was doing, then headed out the door, and walked to the library. He remembered the directions Derek had given to James, and got there within fifteen minutes. Once inside, James ushered him over to a table piled with books.

"Do you see that map of the United States up there?" said James. "There is a state called Remington that doesn't exist in the real world, and their constitution is different!" James picked up the book on the U.S. Presidents. "Look at their current President! Instead of Barack Obama, it's some black guy who looks like Denzel Washington!"

Nick looked at the photo of their current president. "Yeah, that is weird!"

"Why did you create such a weird world?" James asked. "Why did it have to be different than our world?"

"I write all my graphic novels by speaking into a recorder, then I write it all out afterwards," said Nick. "I think when I was working on the part of the story where I mentioned their version of Earth, I was drunk, and after I sobered up, I wrote it out and kept it as part of the story. I never knew it would come back to haunt me!"

"Look at this!" said James. "Their eighth amendment is different than ours. They don't have a law protecting their citizens from cruel and unusual punishment!"

Nick looked through the book that listed the amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

"The reason I did that is because I have a story set in this world, but a hundred years in the future, after shrink-rays were invented. I needed to come up with a way for shrunken people to be sold as toys, so I just omitted that amendment!"

"This world is so radically different from our own," said James, "that we need to be extra cautious here. We have to avoid getting arrested, until we know how different the laws here are!"

"Since we're not on our version of Earth," said Nick, "maybe I could hook up with a job as a comic book artist here in this world!"

Meanwhile, back on Dakadania, Caitlin was adjusting to her first day of school on this new world. As she passed other kids in the hall on her way to her first class, some of them were snickering and giggling at her as they walked by. Caitlin stopped one of them.

"Why is everyone laughing at me?"

"Because your captives escaped back to Earth!" said the boy.

"You're the first Dakadanian in the history of Dakadania to allow your captives to escape back to Earth!" said a girl who was a friend of the boy who was speaking to Caitlin.

"We'll get them back!" said Caitlin.

"Yeah, well lot's of luck with that!" said the girl, and both she and the boy she was with walked off giggling.

Caitlin walked to her first class, determined to get Nick and James back in her possession.

When the last class was over, Caitlin met with Audrey, and they walked home from school together.

"People were laughing at me today!" said Caitlin. "We have to get those captives back to prove them wrong!"

"Well, we can't go to Earth to find them," said Audrey.

"Why not?" Caitlin asked.

"The people of both Thanatar and Dackadania keep our existence a secret from the people of Earth."

"Couldn't one of us shrink down to their size temporarily and go there to search for Nick and James?" Caitlin asked.

"That's actually a good idea!" said Audrey. "No captive has ever escaped Dakadania to Earth until now, so I think that desperate times calls for desperate measures. I think you could sway the council to give you permission, but you would need an older girl to go with you."

"Why can't you go with me?" Caitlin asked.

"I'm only a year older than you, I'm in eighth grade. You would need someone sixteen or seventeen. Don't get discouraged just because something like this has never happened here, the solution you just proposed is in our charter, it just hasn't ever been implemented yet."

Back on the alternate version of Earth where Nick and James were stranded, Nick and James were just reaching Derek's house after walking there from the library. Derek pulled up in his pickup truck. He got out and greeted them.

"We found out this isn't our Earth!" said Nick. "The laws are different, you have a different president, and there's a ton of other differences."

"This isn't my world, either!" said Derek. "I figured it out last night after we got here. There's a spot where I spilled paint in my garage six years ago, and it's in a completely different spot. It's a different color, too. And at work today, the office is designed with different upholstery, but it looks worn, like it wasn't installed recently."

"We may never get back to where any of us originally came from," said Nick. "We're just going to have to tough it out here!"

"Do me a favor guys, and don't tell my wife!" said Derek. "She doesn't know that her real husband probably got devoured by a sadistic schoolgirl back on Dakadania, and I don't want to make her suffer through the loss of her husband a second time."

"No problem!" said Nick.

"Yeah," said James, "that sounds like the best plan."

Meanwhile, back on Dakadania, Audrey and Caitlin arrived home to find an urgent message waiting for them on the computer monitor in the living room. Audrey activated the computer, and the Governess herself was sitting at a desk.

"As you know, I am known as the Governess. I am the creator of the world of Dakadania, and I established the rules of this world to protect runaways, to give them a safe place to grow up before they are returned to Thanatar. An event unheard of in Dakadanian history occurred recently when some of your captives escaped to Earth. Notify me at this return number when you receive this message."

The message ended, and Audrey called the Collector on the video phone. The Collector appeared, and said hello to Caitlin and Audrey.

"Have you figured out a way to get our captives back?" Caitlin asked.

"I've been in a meeting with the Supreme Council for several hours," said the Collector, "and we have come to a conclusion. The captives can be retrieved, and it is imperative that they are as soon as possible. If captives find out others of their kind have escaped Dakadania, it could cause civil unrest among the tinies. It could threaten our way of life!"

"What do you propose we do?" Caitlin asked.

"We have already dispatched several androids to the version of Earth where the captives escaped to. The androids have been reduced to human size to blend in with the humans. The captives are currently under surveillance. We need a girl from Dakadania, preferably one of you, since you are partially responsible for all of this, to go with an older girl who will be fitted with fake identification and currency, to shrink down to human size and infiltrate that society and try to manipulate the former captives into fleeing back to Dakadania!"

"Why would humans flee to a world of hungry giants?" Caitlin asked.

The Governess lifted a booklet in the air. "Our master computer has already come up with several different scenarios that you could use. I'll e-mail this to you immediately, and I want you to read it all the way through before we send you to Earth."

"When I'm shrunk, I won't lose what makes me who I am, will I?" Caitlin asked.

"The theory involves phasing most of the matter composing the quarks, gluons, and electrons of the atoms of your body, and placing it in a higher dimension. The only part of your body that will be visible on Earth is the part of you that gives the illusion that you exist on human scale. When you return to Dakadania, your body will be restored to normal."

"Good!" said Caitlin. "Then I'll do it!"

"You leave in an hour!" said the Governess. "Study the information I sent you, and the older girl who will accompany you will arrive at your door soon." The screen went black and the message was over.

Meanwhile, back on the analog of Earth where Nick and James were currently residing, Nick and James were seated at the dinner table eating a meal prepared by Derek's wife, along with Derek, his wife, Bobby and Troy. Derek's wife got up to put her plate in the sink, when she noticed something outside.

"Derek, I think I see a man out there with a camera!"

Derek, Nick, James, Bobby and Troy all got up to look out the window, but the man was gone.

"I'm going to take a look!" said Nick, as he headed out the door. Nick ran across the property, and when he reached the street, he saw a man running in the distance. Nick tried to chase after him, but the stranger was too fast. Nick returned to Derek's house.

"I think it's an android from Dakadania!" said Nick.

"How can you be so sure?" Derek's wife asked.

"I created the graphic novel that Dakadania is based on!" said Nick. "When I wrote the story, I had mentioned that no one had ever escaped from that world, to create drama and a sense of suspense. I know how the ruling body of Dakadania is set up, and I know they would come after us eventually, if we were the first ones to escape! The Governess would want to set a precedent so no humans ever escape a second time!"

"Are you sure about this?" James asked. "You did create that society, but do even you know how the fabric of their society truly functions?"

"I can't be one hundred percent sure of anything, just like with the eighth amendment, I had forgotten about that completely when we arrived here. But I do know that we can trust that the Governess will send people after us! It's just a question of how and by what means!"

"Can't we just use the lamp?" James asked. "We could wish ourselves away from here!"

"I don't want to use the lamp unless we're in a no-win situation." said Nick. "Remember, we only get a total of three wishes each, and once they're used up, that lamp is useless to us!"

"But we could wish ourselves to some world where life is a paradise, or a utopia!" said Nick.

"If we did that, there might be unforeseen consequences and we could be stuck in a place like that if we used our last wish to get there," said Nick. "At least here or on Dakadania, I know enough about these societies because I created them that it gives us a distinct advantage!"

"What plan of action would you suggest?" James asked.

"We need to blend into this society as much as possible, in an effort to try to make a name for ourselves. If I can get a job as a comic book artist, I might become well known enough that the Governess won't be able to target me without drawing undue attention on us!"

"That plan seems a little out there," said James, "but seeing as to how we don't have a lot of choices, I guess I'll just follow your lead!"

Nick grabbed the classified section of a newspaper and showed it to James. "There are actually positions open here for comic book artists that pay forty grand a year! And that's just starting salary! On this world, comic book artists are treated like rock stars!"

"I find that hard to believe," said James.

"He's right!" said Derek. "On this world, teenage girls hound the outside of comic book studios hoping for an autograph!"

"I'll believe it when I see it!" said James.

"I'll take you with me to the comic studio tomorrow," said Nick. "You can see for yourself!"

Back on Dakadania, the older girl who was going to accompany Caitlin showed up at the door. Audrey let her in.

"I'm Lacey!" said the girl, who looked to be about sixteen or seventeen years old. "Have you read the plans the council computer has come up with for how to persuade the captives to return to Dakadania?"

"I've read most of it," said Caitlin. "But I don't understand why we don't just use mind control on Nick and James and call it a day!"

"We have to acquire them without alerting anyone to our presence!" said Lacey.

"But if we did it my way," said Caitlin, "we could use mind control to erase the memories of any humans we came into contact with!"

"The vehicle we will be traveling in has already journeyed ten years into the future and downloaded the entire Internet of the version of Earth we will be traveling to," said Lacey. "so the computer already knows whether we will succeed or fail. I was told that if we succeed, it will be because we utilized one of the techniques in that booklet you downloaded and printed out."

Caitlin looked at the book. "Can the computer tell us if we will succeed or not?"

"It won't tell us either way," said Lacey, "but look at it this way, would we even be going through all this trouble if it was our destiny to fail?"

Caitlin and Audrey smiled at this, and Lacey smiled back.

"We leave right now!" said Lacey.

"I wish I could go with you!" said Audrey. "Good luck, Caitlin! Restore our reputation by capturing those tiny slaves! And get that lamp back!"

Audrey walked Caitlin and Lacey outside, where there was a vehicle that resembled a motor home back on Earth. Lacey and Caitlin boarded the vehicle.

"Strap yourself in!" said Lacey as she secured her seat belt harness. Caitlin complied, and Lacey activated the control console and the vehicle headed out on a road. "We're heading to a dimensional nexus point that will lead us directly to Earth. We should be there within an hour."

"Can you explain to me what a dimensional nexus point is?" Caitlin asked. "I was never good with physics."

"Sure!" Lacey replied. "A dimensional nexus point is a point of latitude and longitude, and sometimes altitude, where a dimensional gateway exists, linking Dakadania to Earth. There are thousands of analogs of Earth, and on one or more of them, a human might be about to die. Instead, they are brought here, and back on their home world of whatever analog of Earth they're from, they are listed as missing, and they're never seen or heard from again."

"So what happens if one of them get back to Earth, like my captives did?" Caitlin asked.

"We don't know, it's never happened before." Lacey replied. "But part of our mission is to ensure that humans never find out about Dakadania!"

"When will we shrink down to human size?" Caitlin asked.

"As soon as we pass through the dimensional nexus point, this vehicle will reduce itself to human proportions, with us inside, automatically." said Lacey. "The humans will think we're one of them!"

"Can we be sure we'll head to the same version of Earth where my captives ended up?" Caitlin asked.

"Yes!" Lacey replied. "The phase initiators of our vehicle are locked onto the quantum signature of the analog of Earth where Nick and James and the others are. In fact, once we're there, we'll be able to scan for their subcutaneous transponders with our equipment!"

The next morning, Nick got up and took a shower, got dresses and shaved, ate breakfast, and headed out with Derek in Derek's car. Nick had Derek drop him off outside a comic studio, one of the places that was advertising in the classified section offering a job to artists. When Derek left, Nick went in with a folder that doubled as a portfolio, full of drawings he had done the night before on Derek's kitchen table. There were some young women about 18 through their early twenties who were waiting outside, hoping to get a glimpse of a famous artist who worked inside. Nick ignored them and went inside.

The receptionist was a woman in her mid-twenties, and not too bad looking. Nick introduced himself.

"I'm here about the penciling job that was advertised in the classified section," said Nick. The young woman smiled and asked for a sample of his work, and Nick showed her the folder with his art samples.

The woman looked the art over, and said, "These look pretty good! I'll inform the director of this studio, his name is Jacob. You can have a seat right over there." Nick sat down and waited. In less than fifteen minutes, Nick met with the director of the comic studio and was hired on the spot. He was seated at a drafting table with all of the supplies he needed, and given a script to work from. Nick got right to work, loving every minute of it.

Meanwhile, in another part of town, Caitlin and Lacey were in a motel room just waking up.

"It's a good thing you had that fake I.D. to get us this motel room!" said Caitlin.

There was a device on the table near the window that was much more technologically advanced than anything on Earth. Lacey motioned to it and said, "With that scanning device, we can pick up the transponder signatures given off by their subcutaneous transponders."

Caitlin got up to go look at the device. There was a digital map of the Los Angeles area, and there were four points of green light at different places on the map. There was also a blinking red light not far from the green lights.

"What is that red light?" Caitlin asked.

"That represents us," said Lacey. "As you can see, they're not very far from where we are. Now the surveillance team did mind scans of all four escaped captives, and analyzed the data. Nick and James are from a world where the laws are radically different than they are here, and the computer says we can use that to our advantage. What plan of action did you decide to implement?"

"Why are you leaving it up to me?" Caitlin asked. "You're the one who's older, what plan do you think might work the best?"

"The computer that compiled the data said that the plan that will work, if in fact it does work, was the one you decided on. Since there are three plans, I'll rip up six pieces of paper, with plan A written on two of them, plan B on still another two, and plan C on the last two. Each of us will get once copy of each piece of paper, and we will make our choice and toss them into this hat," Lacey held a hat out. "Whichever plan you think will work the best is the one we will use."

Lacey got to work writing down the information, and ripped off six pieces of paper and gave three to Caitlin. Caitlin read briefly through the booklet that had the plans listed in it, and made her choice. She picked one of the pieces of paper and folded it, and tossed it into the hat. Lacey made her choice, and did the same. Lacey grabbed both pieces of paper and unfolded them.

"I picked choice A," said Lacey, "and it looks like you picked choice B. Do you see? If we did it my way, our plan would've failed. Hey, do you want to go get some breakfast before we start our day? There's a restaurant a walking distance from here."

"Sure!" said Caitlin, and the two of them got up to leave.

At the restaurant, the girls placed their orders and the waitress took the menus. Caitlin was puzzled.

"It's been about a minute since they took our order, and we still don't have our food!"

Lacey smiled. "You don't know much about Earth, do you? It's very primitive here, and they have to prepare everything by hand. It takes a lot longer."

"By hand?" Caitlin asked, with a scowl on her face. "That's disgusting! Germs could get into our food!"

"I'm going over to the comic studio to keep an eye on Nick Bowman, your former captive."

"What will I do while you're gone?" Caitlin asked.

"When we get back to the motel, we can print out any police reports from ten years in the future that show if any criminals went missing today. If we find out about any, you can track them down and shrink them. It'll be like a fun game for you!"

"Cool!" said Caitlin.

Meanwhile, in a different part of town, James was at a doctor's office trying to get his transponder removed. The doctor took an x-ray and examined it, and brought it in to James as he waited with his shirt off on an examining table.

"It looks like you have arthritis in your spine," said the doctor as he pointed to some deposits on the upper spinal area, "but other than that, I can't find any evidence of a transponder."

"Well it's there!" said James. "Maybe you're not looking in the right area!"

"Hey partner," said the doctor, "you haven't been seen for any psychological condition, have you?"

"No!" said James. "I"m not crazy, this isn't some delusion! Somewhere on my body is a subcutaneous transponder that gives off a signal so these chicks from another world can monitor me,"

The doctor looked at James in disbelief.

"I guess that does sound crazy," said James. "Let's just say something weird went down, and I know I have the implant somewhere on my body, I just don't know where!"

"If it'll make you feel any better," said the doctor, "I can make an appointment for a CT scan at a better equipped facility only about ten miles from here. They can scan your entire body, and if they find this transponder you speak of, they can surgically remove it!"

"Yeah, that sounds great!" said James.

Back at the restaurant, the food was served to the girls by their waitress. Lacey dug in, but Caitlin was apprehensive.

"I don't want to eat this primitive food!" said Caitlin. "These people are savages!"

"Oh, come on!" said Lacey between bites. "It'll be like camping out, it doesn't hurt to get primitive once in a while! Take a bite!"

Caitlin took a bite, swallowed, then got up and ran to the bathroom. Lacey followed her in, and patted her on the back as Caitlin vomited into a toilet.

"I guess Earth food just isn't your thing," said Lacey. "From now on you can eat food straight from the replicator in the RV!"

A short time later, Lacey and Caitlin were in the RV. Caitlin was eating a breakfast identical to that in the restaurant, but it was replicated.

"Nick won't recognize me because he has never met me before," said Lacey, "but while I'm gone, I have a list of criminals who turned up missing within the next 24 hours. Here's a shrink ray-gun, just try to intercept some of them and shrink them down to size."

Caitlin took the shrink ray-gun and set it beside her at the table. "Can I swallow any of them?"

"You can do whatever you want to them because as far as humanity is concerned, they became missing some time today. According to Dakadanian law, they're fair game!" Lacey took a device out of a container and handed it to Caitlin. "This will help you track them down."

"Were they fitted with transponders?" Caitlin asked. "How can we track them?"

"The equipment we brought with us analyzed their DNA samples after they were booked one of the many times they were arrested. The scanner sends out a dimensional link to their bodies and inputs their position on this digital map." Lacey pointed at the ma on the scanning device. "You see these red dots?"

"Yes!" Caitlin replied.

"If you follow the map on this device to these dots, you will find one of the criminals."

Caitlin took the device like a kid on Christmas morning who got their favorite toy. "Cool!" said Caitlin, licking her lips.

"I'm a Kubert school graduate!" said Nick. "They really drill you on anatomy and composition and everything else until you get to the point where you can draw anything like a pro!"

"You're better than most of our guys here," said the boss.

"I could use some extra work," said Nick. "How about if I drew a graphic novel on my own time and your company published it?"

"Sure!" said the boss. "Do you have a drafting table at home?"

"No, but if you gave me an advance, I could buy one and get right to work!"

"I don't see a problem with that," said the boss, as he reached for his wallet and peeled off about six one hundred dollar bills. "Six hundred should cover a decent drafting table."

Nick took the money and thanked him.

Meanwhile, Caitlin took off with her shrink ray-gun after Lacey left to go stand out in front of the comic studio where Nick worked. She had the scanner device with her, so she could track the criminals that she knew would be missing after today, as Lacey had instructed her. There was a blip on the digital map, so she got some change and caught a bus toward that area. It was at a mall, and she had already looked at a photo of the man she was hunting. He was Hispanic, and in his mid thirties.

Caitlin got off the bus, and the digital map enlarged to show more details. She could see the design of the mall, and the food court, where the man was currently at. When Caitlin got to the food court, there were multiple tables and chairs where she could sit. She spotted her prey, and took a seat not far from where he was sitting. She looked at her scanner and read the crimes he was guilty of, in order to make it seem like she was preoccupied with her own business.

According to the device she held in her hand, the man, known as Hector Santos, was guilty of a long list of crimes dating back to his teenage years. Caitlin watched as the man got up and threw his fast food bag and wrappers into the trash, and walked toward the bathroom. The bathrooms were down a long narrow hallway, so Caitlin waited for the man to finish and exit before pulling out her shrink ray-gun. The man didn't know what to expect when Caitlin zapped him and reduced him down to an inch tall, and luckily, no one else witnessed it. Caitlin knelt down and retrieved Hector, and stuffed him into one of the front pockets of her schoolgirl uniform, and left the mall.

She caught the bus back to the motel, keeping her hand clenched gently around Hector's tiny miniaturized body. When she reached the motel, she entered and closed the door. Lacey still hadn't returned yet. Caitlin jumped onto her bed and reclined, then pulled out Hector and examined him.

"You're my property now!" said Caitlin, smiling. "You will be my slave until the day you die, so you'd better get accustomed to the idea of me sending you crashing to the depths of my teenage belly!"

"Why did you target me?" Hector asked.

"You were destined to disappear today!" Caitlin replied. "It's better that you ended up as my tiny slave than for you to die some other way! I'm taking you with me back to Dakadania, a world of sadistic thunder children who carry out a never ending reign of terror on people your size!"

"But I wouldn't be this size if it wasn't for you!" said Hector.

"I'm not supposed to be this size either," said Caitlin. "I'm shrunk, too! Normally, I'm close to four hundred feet tall. You'll be re-enlarged to your normal size when we return to where I came from, but I'll grow too, so the size disparity between us will be maintained!"

"What are you going to do to me?" Hector asked.

"I told you already, I'm going to swallow you!" said Caitlin. "All the girls of my race like to swallow the people of your tiny race, then vomit you back up! We're like a race of gods!"

"What are you going to do with me until then?" Hector asked.

"I'm going to play with you!" Caitlin answered. "What else are tiny toys good for? Now, do as I command, and march astride my mighty thigh!" Caitlin slammed her right leg down, and set Hector on her right thigh. He obeyed, and marched back and forth. "Now march to my ankle and return to my thigh! " Hector obeyed. "See?" said Caitlin, "Isn't this fun?"

Caitlin looked on the table as Hector walked across her leg, and spotted a cleansing solution brought from Dakadania. "Oh, I almost forgot! I've got to clean you first!" Caitlin grabbed Hector in her fist and carried him to the table, She opened a plastic disposable cup and dumped some of the cleaning solution into the cup, then dropped Hector in. After dunking him a few times, Caitlin lifted him out and lifted him above her mouth.

"Now you're clean enough for me to stick you inside my mouth!" Caitlin licked her lips and began lowering Hector toward her open mouth. Hector could see all of her teeth clearly, and her tongue swaying back and forth hungrily. Caitlin let go of Hector, and because of the force of gravity, he had no choice but to fall directly into her open mouth. His body hit her tongue, and her mouth closed around him.

"Hmmm," said Caitlin out loud to herself, "Should I or shouldn't I?" There was a bulge in her left cheek where Hector was concealed within her mouth. She pulled out a token from Dakadania and said, "Heads I swallow him, tails he lives another day!" Caitlin tossed the token into the air, and when it came down on her other palm, it was heads side up.

"Yes!" said Caitlin, clenching her fist in victory. She tilted her head back and swallowed, sending poor Hector down her esophagus, where he splashed down onto what remained of Caitlin's breakfast. Aware of what had just happened to him, Hector instinctively tried to hold his breath, to conserve air. He took a breath once every twenty seconds or so, but this would eventually make him dizzier.

Meanwhile, Caitlin lifted her blouse and rubbed her perfectly defined abdominal muscles and laughed out loud at the plight of her prey.

Across town, in front of the comic studio where Nick was just getting off work, Lacey waited with a pad of paper and a pen, along with the other girls who were waiting for an encounter with an artist. Lacey was dressed in the same type of schoolgirl uniform that Caitlin and Audrey wore; the other girls waiting outside the comic studio with her were wearing normal street clothes. Tony exited the building with his portfolio and box of art tools, and spotted the girls waiting. They swarmed around him.

"Are you a famous artist?" One of the girls asked.

"I just started working here," Nick answered. "Maybe in a few months, after I get a graphic novel published." Nick's attention was suddenly diverted to Lacey; her schoolgirl uniform was identical to those worn on Dakadania, and seeing it struck fear into his heart. Lacey approached him.

"Can I have your autograph?" Lacey asked.

Nick grabbed the pad and pen and quickly signed his autograph. "Where are you from?"

"I'm not from around here," said Lacey.

"You look like you're still in high school, shouldn't you have been in school today?" Nick asked.

"I've got more important things going on than school," said Lacey.

"Like what?" Nick asked, swallowing out of fear.

"Like keeping my eyes on you!" said Lacey with a sinister smile.

Nick left and ran toward the bus stop, surprised that Lacey didn't come after him. The bus came not long after he got there, and he headed back to Derek's house. When he got there, James had just gotten home from the doctor's office.

"I saw a Dakadanian!" said Nick.

"Really?" said James. "Wouldn't that be on the news by now? They're like four hundred feet tall!"

"No!" said Nick. "Whoever she was, she was shrunk down to our scale! She looked like a normal teenage girl!"

"How do you know she was Dakadanian?" James asked.

"Her uniform!" said Nick. "It was unmistakable!"

"Now don't get too worked up about this," said James, "you could be wrong! Didn't you say you copied those uniforms as an art reference for your graphic novel from a photo you pulled off a jailbait website?"

"Yes!" said Nick.

"Isn't it conceivable that this chick was simply a student at some Catholic school in this area?"

"What you're saying isn't impossible, but it's highly improbable!" said Nick. "The way she acted, and what she said to me clued me in! She said she's keeping her eyes on me! It was really spooky!"

James got up and retrieved the magic lamp from its hiding spot. He sat down on the couch with Nick, and held the lamp.

"We can always wish our way out of this situation!" said James. "We can write down a hundred different wishes on a piece of paper, then narrow it down to the best two or three wishes."

"Let's start writing!" said Nick, and the two men began writing down their wish ideas down on paper.

Meanwhile, Lacey caught a bus back to the motel where Caitlin was waiting for her.

"How did your day go?" Lacey asked.

"I caught a criminal and shrunk him down to size," said Caitlin.

"Let's see him!" said Lacey. "Where is he?"

Caitlin looked down toward Lacey's feet, with a guilty look on her face. "Actually, I swallowed him!" Caitlin couldn't help smiling a little bit, and this made Lacey smile, then they both broke out laughing.

"Was it fun?" Lacey asked.

Caitlin nodded her head, then lifted her blouse, revealing her tight abdominal muscles. "Do you think he's still alive in there?" Caitlin asked.

"How long ago did you devour him?" Lacey asked.

"About twenty minutes ago," Caitlin replied.

"Use the neural stimulator," Lacey replied. "They can survive for twenty or thirty minutes, so you shouldn't have a problem vomiting him up."

Caitlin aimed the neural stimulator at her head, and she vomited a few moments later. She vomited into the bathroom sink, and plucked Hector out and rinsed him off.

"How did your day go?" Caitlin asked.

"I made contact with Nick, according to our plan. That should strike some fear into him, causing him to make mistakes! Our goal is to make sure he isn't thinking clearly."

"He still has his magic lamp," said Caitlin. "We need to acquire it!"

"Not today!" said Lacey. "We can do that tomorrow. Right now, I want to go hunt for criminals and shrink them! Are you coming with me?"

"Yes!" said Caitlin, as Lacey gathered the scanning device and both girls each grabbed a shrink ray-gun and headed out the door. Once at the bus stop, they used their computer to match up the bus itinerary with the blip on the digital map. Two bus rides later, they were in a run down area of L.A. where there were sure to be lowlifes hanging out this time of day.

Lacey showed Caitlin a photo on the scanner device of the man they were looking for, and they walked down the streets they needed to in order to meet up with the criminal they were after. Less than fifteen minutes after getting off the bus, they found him. Lacey pointed her shrink ray-gun at him, and he was instantly reduced down to an inch tall. Lacey scooped him up and put him in a container, which she stuck in her pocket.

They got on a bus again, and went after the nearest target to their current location. They spent two hours or more going after criminals, until they had captured three each, then they got back to the motel after dark.

Nick and James went over their list, with the lamp close by. "So we've narrowed it down to two possibilities," said Nick, "we either make it so their vehicle doesn't work so they can't get back to Dakadania, or we shut down all the dimensional nexus points that bridge Dakadania with this version of Earth."

"I like the idea of shutting down all the nexus points," said James.

"But if we do that, it might only be temporary, they might be able to establish other nexus points," said Nick. "I think we should damage their vehicle."

"We've each got one wish each," said James, "if I use my wish, I'm shutting down all the nexus points. You can use your wish for whatever you want!"

"But if we shut down all the nexus points, we wouldn't be able to get back to Earth if they ever caught us and took us back to Dakadania!" said Nick. "We have to think this through!"

"If we disable the vehicle of that Dakadanian girl you saw earlier today, you realize that will be only temporary, don't you?" said James. "They'll just come back in another vehicle!"

"But it will buy us enough time until we can figure out a more permanent solution!" said Nick, picking up the lamp. "It'll force her to jump through the dimensional nexus point below suicide ridge!"

"Are you going to do it right now?" James asked.

"If I don't do it now, they might come for us and shrink us before we wake up tomorrow morning!" said Nick, rubbing the lamp. "I wish for the vehicle that Dakadanian girl came to Earth in to be permanently disabled, so she can't travel back to Dakadania!"

Meanwhile, back at the motel room where Lacey and Caitlin were staying, the girls had just finished washing their captives in the cleaning solution that Caitlin had used earlier. When the final captive was washed and rinsed, a red light started beeping on the equipment on the table.

"Uh-oh, something's wrong!" said Lacey, setting her captive down and walking over to use their equipment. "Our main computer says our vehicle has been crippled!"

"Can we fix it?" Caitlin asked.

"Not that I know of. We're going to have to cross through the nearest dimensional nexus point at suicide ridge!" said Lacey. "We have to get there before the buses stop running."

"Do we have to jump off the cliff?" Caitlin asked.

"Yes, but we'll be pulled through a dimensional space warp to Dakadania, where we'll land in a force field that will break our fall. Come on, help me pack up this stuff, we need to take everything with us!"

The girls checked out of the motel, and made their way to the bus stop. Once on the bus, Caitlin was upset.

"That stupid lamp!" said Caitlin. "Me and Audrey should've never left that lamp behind, and they never would've escaped!"

"Hind sight is twenty twenty!" said Lacey. "When we get back to Earth, we need to use mind control to read Nick and James's minds so we know exactly how many wishes they've used! Each person only gets three wishes, right?"

"Yes!" said Caitlin. "So we're definitely coming back to get them?"

"Yes!" said Lacey. "No captive has ever escaped from Dakadania, and we need to make sure to set an example!"

"What if they do this to us again?" Caitlin asked.

"They won't be able to, because we're taking that lamp away from them as soon as get back to Earth!"

"We should've just stormed their hiding spot and shrunk them!" said Caitlin. "These plans dreamed up by the computer were stupid and a waste of time!"

"Now, Caitlin," said Lacey, "the computer knew one of those plans would work,"

"But it didn't!" said Caitlin. "Look where we are! On a bus back to the nearest dimensional nexus point!"

Lacey looked around to make sure no other passengers overheard Caitlin.

"Be careful," said Lacey, "you might be overheard! And just because this phase of our plan didn't work doesn't mean we won't be able to defeat and capture them when we return! So try to keep a positive attitude about all of this!"

"Yeah, I guess you're right!" said Caitlin.

Meanwhile, back at Derek's, Nick and James explained the situation to Derek just after he returned home from work.

"I think it was a smart move disabling their vehicle," said Derek. "But what do you plan on doing in the long term? She's bound to come back for you. And I agree with Nick that closing off the dimensional nexus points is a bad idea, in case we end up back on Dakadania and we need a way to return!"

"If we ever end up back on Dakadania, I don't think we'll ever be able to escape a second time!" said Nick. "When I created the Dakadania graphic novel back on the version of Earth where James and I came from, I established that no one had ever escaped from that world. If someone ever did, the director of the Dakadanian council, otherwise known as the Governess, won't rest until all of us are re-captured and returned to the hands of our mistresses!"

"Well, if our re-capture is inevitable," said Derek, "then we should celebrate our temporary freedom with some beer! There's no beer back on Dakadania!"

"I agree!" said James.

"I need someone to help me carry it!" said Derek, and James volunteered. The two men got into Derek's pickup truck and took off toward the liquor store.

There were several teenage girls in Catholic schoolgirl uniforms outside the liquor store, eating candy and drinking sodas.

"Are those Dakadanians?" James shouted, as they pulled up.

"No, their uniforms are different," said Derek. "There's a Catholic high school not far from here, and you see some of the girls from that school around here from time to time. Had you going for a second, didn't they?"

"I thought we were goners for sure!" said James.

Meanwhile, Lacey and Caitlin had arrived at their destination on the coast. They got off the bus, and walked to the edge of the cliff.

"Well, here we are!" said Lacey. "Suicide ridge! All we have to do is jump off and we're back in Dakadania."

"How are the humans of this world unaware of the dimensional nexus located here?" Caitlin asked.

"No human who has ever fallen into the portal has ever returned to tell people about it!" said Lacey, as she tossed her equipment over the edge. The girls watched the equipment disappear into a dimensional portal and disappear. "Drop the equipment you're carrying, Caitlin!"

Caitlin dropped what she was carrying over the cliff, and it also disappeared into the dimensional nexus.

"Hold my hand, and we'll jump together!" said Lacey, and Caitlin complied. Both of the them jumped at the same time, and disappeared through the portal. The world around them seemed to disappear as they fell through the portal, and a night time Dakadanian landscape formed around them. Lacey and Caitlin were automatically restored to normal size when they emerged in Dakadania. A force field broke their fall.

"Hey, we're normal size again!" said Caitlin.

"Kids from Dakadania always return to normal size if they were shrunk on Earth!" said Lacey. "It's so we don't get confused for humans."

Lacey broke free from the force field. "The force field is strong enough to break our fall, but weak enough for a Dakadanian to break free from it's pull. Only humans stay trapped!"

Caitlin broke free, and looked at the force field emitters forming an octagon surrounding the area at the bottom of the cliff. There was a video phone booth nearby, and Lacey used it to call the Collector. In moments, the face of the middle aged woman who took care of the children of Dakadania appeared on the monitor.

"Why have you returned to Earth?" The Governess asked. "Our equipment indicates that Nick and James are still on Earth! Their transponders are still transmitting to our receivers!"

"They have a lamp that grants wishes," said Lacey. "And they used it to cripple our vehicle. We returned through the nearest dimensional nexus point to receive further instructions from you, ma'am!"

"You must return immediately!" said the Governess. "We'll have another vehicle ready for you within the hour. As soon as you get back to Earth, use a shrink ray-gun to reduce the disabled vehicle and take it with you when you return to Dakadania. We can't have the humans discovering our technology! Then you are to continue with your plans to drive Nick Bowman and James Roberts back to Dakadania!"

"As you have spoken, so shall it be!" said Lacey, bowing her head. The monitor went blank.

"We know for sure that we'll succeed, don't we?" Caitlin asked. "We will acquire them eventually, it's just a matter of time, isn't it?"

"I was told through temporal reconnaissance that we would succeed in driving them back to Dakadania by employing a plan that you chose, out of the plans that we had. The Governess is very sketchy about revealing too many details about the future."

"It just seems like there is an easier way to get them," said Caitlin. "We could use mind control to make them catatonic, then just march in and steal the lamp, shrink them, and take them back to Dakadania!"

Lacey tilted her head back and laughed. "We're Dakadanians! And before that, we were Thunder Giants from Thanatar! We have a legacy to live up to! These captives who escaped from us have created a historic event, the likes of which have never been seen! All eyes on Dakadania will be on us when we capture them! How would it look if we took the easy route?"

"I think I see where you're coming from!" said Caitlin. "The more difficult the chase, the better the victory will be!"

"Exactly!" said Lacey. "A hundred years from now, Dakadanians will be talking about what we did over the next twenty-four hours! We can't let them down!"

Before long, the next vehicle arrived, and Lacey and Caitlin boarded. Lacey drove it toward the nexus point they had driven through originally. In less than an hour, they reached the nexus point and passed through the portal, and the vehicle, with them inside, was reduced to the scale of normal human beings.

"Now we have to get back to the motel we were at before, so we can reduce the vehicle down to size." said Lacey.

Before long, they arrived at the motel, and Lacey got out and shrunk the RV they had traveled in before. She got back on board their new vehicle, and Lacey tossed the shrunken RV to Caitlin.

"Now we need to find another motel!" said Lacey.

They drove around for a while, until Lacey found a motel closer to where Nick worked. Lacey parked the RV.

"This motel is at a much better location," said Lacey, "because it's closer to where Nick works as a comic book artist, and it also ties in with more of those criminals who are destined to disappear within the next twenty-four hours or so."

"Cool!" said Caitlin, pulling out her three captives. "I almost forgot about the captives we've captured already!"

Lacey paid for their motel room, and came back to usher Caitlin to their room.

"Here's your copy of the room key," said Lacey.

When they entered the room, Lacey put some of the equipment she was carrying onto the sole table and turned all of it on. Caitlin set her three captives down on the table, and began commanding them.

"Your mistress commands you!" said Caitlin. "Whoever is the slowest to follow my orders will get swallowed! Now then, march to the edge of the table, in this direction!" Caitlin pointed at the opposite edge of the table from where the captives were standing, and two of them started marching. An Asian captive refused to march.

"Slave!" said Caitlin. "Why aren't you obeying me?"

"I don't take orders from little girls!" said the Asian captive.

"Well, I'm not a 'little' girl, I'm easily seventy-two times your size! And you shall do as I command!" Caitlin slammed her right fist down on the table for emphasis. "Now march!"

"Just swallow him, Caitlin!" said Lacey. "You shouldn't suffer a rebel to live! After a few minutes in your belly, he'll comply!"

Caitlin complied with what Lacey told her to do, and picked up the captive in her fist. His head was peeking over her fist.

"Prepare to go on a journey to the belly of a teenage tyrant!" said Caitlin, tossing her head back and throwing the captive into her mouth. The inch-tall man tumbled over Caitlin's tongue, toward the back of her mouth. Caitlin reflexively swallowed, sending the tiny man squishing down her esophagus, and he dropped down into her stomach cavity with a splash. He screamed in defeat, knowing this would be his end; there was no one who could help him, no one knew of his plight except the sadistic teenage goddess who had conquered him, and her cute friend.

Lacey thought over their plan. She hooked up a mind control device to the transceiver that monitored the transponder signals coming from Nick and James. The keyboard hooked up to the device was opened and activated, and Lacey began typing.

"What are you doing?" Caitlin asked.

"I'm giving Nick some inspiration!" Lacey replied. "I'm going to take an idea Nick has already been thinking about, and I'm going to splice some of my own original concepts that violate the laws of this society. Mind scan shows that he still isn't completely aware of the difference between the laws of this version of Earth, and the world he originated from.

"I thought it was the same on any version of Earth," said Caitlin.

"No, there are hundreds of thousands of different alternate quantum realities, and each one is different from the others. On one Earth, you could have something like major historical wars turning out differently, or it could be something as subtle as a person survived in one world, where they died in another. Those little differences add up!"

"How are we going to use this to our advantage?" Caitlin asked.

"The laws on this version of Earth are really strict, compared to the world Nick and James are from," said Lacey. "On this world, the first amendment doesn't give you as much freedom of speech as Nick is accustomed to. If he inadvertently creates a comic book story that contains illegal content, and publishes it online, then he can be brought up on charges."

"But if he gets arrested, it'll be that much more difficult to acquire him!" said Caitlin.

"I'm counting on him being driven back to Dakadania," said Lacey. "Temporal recon didn't say we would successfully capture them, it said we would successfully drive them back to our world!"

Caitlin rubbed her palms together with glee. "I hope this plan works!"

"Let's retrieve your swallowed captive now," said Lacey, "he should've learned some obedience by now. I'm going to show you how to use a space warp to retrieve captives from your belly." Lacey pulled out a machine that was big enough for someone to fit their hand inside. She reached in, while pointing the device at Caitlin's belly, and pulled out the captive. "You see? I got him out without you being forced to vomit."

"That's really cool!" said Caitlin. Lacey set the inch-tall Asian man on the table. Caitlin turned her attention to him. "Are you ready to comply with my commands?"

The tiny Asian man bowed down to the beautiful behemoth, indicating complete obedience.

Derek and James arrived back at Derek's place with the beer, and the men began celebrating their temporary freedom. Bobby was on the Internet when he found something that he thought would interest Nick.

"I found a drafting table on Craigslist!" said Bobby. "It's in like new condition."

"How much does he want for it?" Nick asked.

"Three hundred, and he adds twenty bucks if he delivers it." Bobby answered.

"Get it!" said Bobby. I have some money my boss gave me for a new drafting table. I can get to work on a new comic!"

Within an hour, the drafting table was delivered, and Bobby helped Nick set up an area where he could work without being bothered by anyone else in the house. Nick already had some supplies he had brought with him from the comic studio, so he got to work. Several hours passed, and Nick presented the first three or four pages to James, Derek, Bobby and Troy.

"These are pretty good!" said Bobby.

"The lettering and coloring will all be done digitally after the pages have been scanned," said Nick. "But you can kind of see where the story is going. The main character is a female Flash Gordon who travels to a weird alternate world after passing through a dimensional portal in a Mayan cave. I'm calling her Regan Dare!"

"How many pages do you plan on doing tonight?" Bobby asked. "You've got work tomorrow, you know."

"As many as I can," said Nick. "I really want to impress my boss. In fact, I plan on going in a couple of hours before work starts and using their scanner and software to finish up these pages."

"So you're pulling another all-nighter?" James asked.

"Yep!" said Nick.

"He used to do this back on our home world," James said to Bobby. "When he gets that creative spark, he's in the zone, and nothing, not even sleeping, can hold him back!"

By 5:00 a.m. the next morning, everyone in the house was asleep except Nick. He had gotten about eight pages done, and the ink had dried, so he collected the pages and put them in his portfolio and woke Derek up, who was asleep on the couch.

"I need a ride to the comic studio!" said Nick. Derek fished his car keys out of his pocket and followed Nick to his vehicle, and got in and drove Nick to work. Derek dropped Tony off, and drove home.

Nick had a key to get into the studio, so he used it and went to the scanner and scanned all the pages he had done the night before. He saved them to a flash drive he had on him, then went to his computer station, which was set up next to his drafting table. He began working on the pages, first doing the lettering with Adobe Illustrator, then coloring with Adobe Photoshop. When people started coming in to work around 9:00 a.m. Nick got back to work on the normal stuff he had been working on during business hours, and put his personal project on hold.

When he got off work, he caught the bus home to Derek's place and got to work on his Regan Dare comic. By 11:00 p.m. he was done with the first chapter, showing how Regan got to the planet Zeptar along with her boyfriend Dash Wheeler.

"I'm calling it a night!" said Nick, as Derek and James looked over the pages he had drawn. Bobby was unaware of the laws concerning comic stories, so he was unaware that Nick was violating several different laws with his comic. Nick went to bed, completely unaware of the firestorm that would occur at work the next day when he tried to post the comic onto the comic studio website.

While Nick was crashed out on the air mattress he had been using each night, Derek, James, Bobby and Troy stayed up drinking beer for the second night in a row. Nick was too tired to party because he had pulled an all-nighter the night before.

"He was a real legend back on our world," James told Derek concerning Nick. "He won a Hugo award for best graphic novel just before we ended up on Dakadania." James went on to explain how he and Nick had arrived on Dakadania.

"You mean you two chose to journey to Dakadania? The rest of us had no choice in the matter. We would've died either way, but that's not the point. If you could travel to a world Nick created as a comic book artist, why not travel to a different world?"

"The other graphic novels are even worse," said James, "as far as actually traveling there. In Planet of the Titans they make humans from Earth play gladiatorial games and they gamble with the lives of the humans, and the losers get swallowed alive!"

"So both of you would've disappeared if that time traveler hadn't have showed up?" Derek asked.

"Photoshop to color the comics," James replied, "and Adobe Illustrator to do the lettering. Really expensive software."

"I think I can find someone online who can sell me bootleg copies of that software!" said Derek.

Meanwhile, during that same day, Lacey and Caitlin were out hunting for captives. When they caught their first captive that morning, Lacey said: "When we each have a total of five captives each, we can play a game that's really popular on Dakadania!"

"What's the game called?" Caitlin asked.

"Pentathanar!" Lacey replied. "It's similar to chess, but simplified so there isn't a need for as many chess pieces. each captive represents a different chess piece on the game board!"

"Well, I've got two and you've got one," said Caitlin. "How about after you catch up to me, we take turns keeping the next captive, until we each have five?"

"Sounds good to me!" said Lacey. "According to our scanner, our next victim is just a few blocks from here."

The hunt went according to plan throughout the day, and the girls caught a significant number of captives by lunch time, but still short of five captives each. After eating lunch back at their vehicle that was parked near the motel, they got back to work, and by nightfall, they each had five captives. When they got off the bus near the motel, Lacey went into their RV-like vehicle and used the replicator to make a game board for Pentathanar, the game Lacey had told Caitlin about. The girls sat at the table in the motel room and dumped out their captives onto the game board.

"Welcome to your new life!" said Lacey to the tiny, inch-tall captives. "I am mistress Lacey, and to my right, on the opposite side of the table, is mistress Caitlin! If you obey the commands of your mistress, you may live a somewhat long life. However, all of you will end up within the belly of your mistress sooner or later! The faster you obey, the longer you shall live! Do we have an understanding?"

"If you understand," said Caitlin to the captives, "bow to Lacey right now!"

Nine of the captives bowed to Lacey, but one of them refused.

"We have a rebel!" said Lacey. "Slave, why do you refuse to surrender to the commands of your mistress?"

"We haven't been fed all day!" said the rebellious captive. "I was one of the first to be captured some time this morning, and I want to eat before I obey anybody!"

"You will all be fed after we play a game called Pentathanar!" said Lacey. "Each of you will be assigned a piece, and you must move when summoned to, according to the abilities of the chess piece you represent."

Caitlin slammed her right fist down on the table. "So do you agree to obey us, slave?"

The captive bowed down lower than the others had done when they bowed earlier. Lacey commanded the captives to stand in the square assigned to them, and told them what piece they were supposed to be, and how they were to move across the board. The board was set up like two diamonds, with squares composing each diamond where the game pieces were either currently stationed at their starting positions, or they could move to spaces that were available in the squares where the two diamonds converged.

The game began, and Lacey allowed Caitlin to go first. Lacey took her turn, then Caitlin went again, and Caitlin had Lacey's king checkmated in just a few moves.

"How did you do that?" Lacey asked.

"My Aunt Cindy taught me some good chess moves when I was a kid, so I just applied it to this game," said Caitlin. "She said chess skills would come in handy on Dakadania, but of course I never believed her when she told me about that place."

"Why didn't you believe her?" Lacey asked. "If I had a relative who had been on Dakadania, I would've hung on their every word every time they spoke of it!"

"It just seemed like a made-up place," said Caitlin. "A sanctuary world for runaways? If so many people have been there, why is it such a secret? Why haven't there been politicians or business leaders who have been there as kids who talk about it?"

"We are pledged to keep it a secret when we leave here," said Lacey. "We can tell our families about it, but we can't publicly admit we were ever there."

"Do I swallow your king now that I beat you?" Caitlin asked.

"Then we couldn't play any more," said Lacey. "How about we keep playing, and we keep track of the pieces who got eliminated first, and the winner swallows the losing pieces!"

"Okay!" said Caitlin, rubbing her hands together with excitement. "I can't wait to show this game to Audrey when we get back to Dakadania!"

"She probably already knows," said Lacey. "Most Dakadanian girls try to accumulate five captives. so they can play Pentathanar with other girls who have five captives."

Later that night, back at Derek's house, Derek answered his door and paid someone for two CD-ROMs. He went to his computer and installed the software, then woke Nick up.

"Look!" said Bobby. "I've got bootleg copies of Photoshop and Illustrator so you can complete your comic!"

"Thanks!" said Nick. "Now I can pull another all-nighter! I can have the first chapter online before I start work tomorrow morning!"

Nick worked through the night, and by 5:00 a.m. he had finished the first chapter of his planned graphic novel. It was about twenty pages long, and it was black and white. The lettering had been done Adobe Illustrator, and looked very professional. Nick woke James up to show him.

"Take a look!" said Nick, as Nick wiped his eyes.

"I thought it was going to be in color," said James. "I even saw you do a couple of pages in color with Photoshop!"

"I decided to post the first version of chapter one in black and white, because coloring takes too long," said Nick. "Eventually, I'll go back and color each page with Photoshop and release a full color version, but for now it's all black and white."

"You should post this on the Internet," James suggested.

"I already did!" said Nick. "It's available on the comic studio website, I uploaded it just before I woke you up."

Just then, at Lacey and Caitlin's motel room, an android arrived at the door and knocked. Lacey answered the door.

"I'm from temporal recon," said the android, "Nick has uploaded the first chapter of the comic to the website of the comic studio he works for, and he is guilty of several violations that could cause him to be in trouble with the law."

"Thank you for informing us!" said Lacey. By now, Caitlin had arrived next to her, rubbing her eyes.

"You should notify Nick's employer of Nick's violations as soon as the comic studio opens," said the android.

"Should I go down there in person, or should I do it over the phone?" Lacey asked.

"I would recommend a personal touch," said the android. "I think you should go down there in person."

When the android turned to leave, Lacey shut the door. "Let's take our showers, and get down there. Do you want to go with me?"

"Yes!" said Caitlin.

About an hour and a half later, Caitlin and Lacey stepped off a bus near the comic studio, a few minutes before it opened. Lacey saw Nick's boss unlock the door, so she approached him.

"Do you have an artist named Nick Bowman working for you?" Lacey asked.

"Yes, I do," said the boss. "Why?"

"I have evidence that Nick used a pirated copy of Adobe Illustrator to letter a good portion of a comic he uploaded to your website. As well as some other violations!"

"Really?" the boss replied, "I'll have to look into this!"

He ushered the girls inside, and went to the computer and turned it on. He examined the comic Nick had put together, and remarked, "It doesn't follow the story pattern of any comic I've ever seen! My comic studio could get heavily fined just for that!" The boss looked several pages into the comic, and saw the character Regan Dare leaping into some water on the planet Zeptar. "He has used an unauthorized sound effect here! What does 'Ker-Plash' mean?"

Lacey handed the boss the evidence the android had given her. "This is proof that the software he used was pirated!"

The boss got on the phone and called the police, just before Nick arrived.

"The police have already been called," said the boss.

"For what?" Nick asked.

"Pirated software, unauthorized use of sound effects, and the story you wrote doesn't fit any known paradigm."

"What do you mean?" Nick asked.

The boss tossed him a binder. "This is a list of all the stories you are authorized to use. For example, a girl has powers, but she is shunned by her peers, then the popular kids trick her into becoming prom queen, and she exacts her revenge."

"That's the plot behind Carrie!" said Nick. "So all the stories you use have to follow a strict pattern?"

"You said you were a Kubert school graduate," said the boss, "you should've learned all of this! And can you explain this to me?" The boss showed Nick the 'Ker-Plash' sound effect.

"That's a sound effect!" said Nick.

"But it isn't a registered sound effect," said the boss.

Lacey and Caitlin came out from behind a file cabinet where they had been hiding, and Lacey said, "You should try to keep him here until the police arrive!"

Nick took one look at Lacey and Caitlin, and bolted from the comic studio. Lacey and Caitlin exited the comic studio, and ran to the sidewalk where they watched Nick run down the street and turn at the corner.

"Shouldn't we go after him?" Caitlin asked.

"We want to drive him back to Dakadania," said Lacey, "those were our instructions."

Nick made it to a pay phone and called Derek. Luckily, Derek hadn't left for work yet.

"I saw Caitlin and another Dakadanian girl at the comic studio this morning!" said Nick. "She ratted me out to my boss, he wants to have me arrested for using pirated software, and some other violations! We need to leave this world as soon as possible! I'm at the gas station around the corner from the comic studio, can you come get me?"

"Those diabolical damsels!" said Derek. "I'm on my way!"

"I'll be hiding behind the dumpster!" said Nick.

When Derek arrived, Nick jumped in. james, Bobby, and Troy were already in the back seat.

"Are we taking the flying saucer?" James asked. "I brought the magic lamp, and the DX cube, in case we need them!"

"I know of a dimensional nexus point a little bit further away than the one we came through to get here," said Nick. "But first, we need to figure out a way to get rid of the subcutaneous transponders we had injected into us!"

"If we wish for all of our transponders to disappear, we would waste a wish and we could still have another transponder injected into us," said Derek. "How about we wish for a machine that could remove any transponder, so we could use it over and over again!"

"That's a great idea!" said Nick. "But you're going to have to do it Derek, because me and James have just about used up our wishes."

"No problem!" said Derek. He took the magic lamp, rubbed it and wished for a device that could remove their transponders. When he made his wish, a device appeared, and Nick took it and waved it over his body.

"How does this thing work?" Nick asked, and a read-out screen lit up, explaining how to use the device. "Oh, here's the instructions!" Nick carefully read the instructions, then located his transponder, somewhere below his neck. He pushed a button on the device, and removed the transponder, then threw the transponder out the window.

Meanwhile, Lacey and Caitlin were at the bus stop by the comic studio, and Caitlin was looking at the scanner that kept track of their captive's transponder signatures.

"Nick's transponder signal disappeared!" said Caitlin. She showed the scanner to Lacey. "How is that possible?"

"They must have figured out a way to use that lamp to remove their transponders," said Lacey. "The transponders are powered by their body heat, once they're removed, they become inactive. We can only hope that they will be driven back to Dakadania!"

"But if they return without their transponders, we'll never find them again!" said Caitlin.

Back in Derek's car, Nick handed the device to James. "You use the blue button to locate your transponder, then you use the red button to remove it!"

James did as Nick instructed, and found and removed his transponder, and tossed it out the window.

"We can't interfere with them or we'll fail on our mission," said Lacey. "Temporal recon said they must be driven back to Dakadania by events we set into motion. If we try to acquire them, they might use the lamp to escape, or worse, they might do something to us!"

"So what should we do?" Caitlin asked.

"Just wait and see what they do. If their flying vehicle enters Dakadania, we should be able to pick it up with scanners we have."

"But what if they wish for a cloaking device that can beat our scanners?" Caitlin asked. Lacey was quiet as she pondered this.

Meanwhile, Nick and Derek were discussing this very issue. "Derek, when we get back to your pad, you need to wish for a cloaking device that we can install on the flying saucer so it can beat any of the Dakadanian scanners!"

"What's your plan once we get back to Dakadania?" Derek asked.

"I want to start a resistance movement, and rescue other humans from those giant brats!" said Nick. "With this transponder removal device, we should be able to help quite a few people! Are you coming with us?"

"I don't have a choice," said Derek, "I've already helped you, the police are after you, and I could get arrested for what I've done for you already. I'm going back to Dakadania with you!"

"Derek still has one wish after he wishes for the cloaking device," said James. "What else should he wish for?"

"We need to figure out a way to really get back at them," said Derek. "Nick, you created Dakadania, what do they really fear?"

"They don't want the people of earth to know that Dakadania exists," said Nick. "They want to keep it a secret."

"Give me that lamp!" said Derek, as he pulled over to the side of the curb. "Nick, you said there were two of them at the comic studio?"

"Yes, Caitlin and an older girl," Nick replied.

"Lamp, for my second wish, I want Nick's flying saucer to be equipped with a cloaking device that can beat any detection device the Dakadanians use! For my final wish, I wish for Caitlin and her companion to return to normal Dakadanian size, so they're giants here on Earth!"

At that exact moment, Caitlin and Lacey expanded to their normal size, which is just over four hundred feet tall to normal-sized humans.

"What happened to us?" Caitlin asked.

"We've returned to normal size!" said Lacey. "They must've used the lamp again!"

"What should we do?" Caitlin asked.

"Let's try to intercept them before they reach the flying saucer! Do you know how to get to the property where Nick and James were staying?"

"No!" Caitlin replied.

"Well, I do! Follow me!" said Lacey, and the two giant teenagers thundered off into the distance, toward Derek's house.

Back in Derek's car, Derek started driving again. James looked out the rear window and saw the giantesses.

"I see them!" said James. "Step on it, Derek! They're trying to reach your pad so they can destroy the saucer!"

"Can you get there before they do?" Nick asked.

"I can try!" said Derek. "But by the time I get there I'll probably have broken a dozen laws and we'll probably have a million cop cars following us!"

"We're leaving this world any way!" said Nick. "We don't need to be worried about breaking the law!"

Derek took that as an incentive to drive crazy. He weaved through traffic, and ran through every red light he came across. Sure enough, a police cruiser spotted him and followed in pursuit.

"It's a good thing your second wish was to have the cloaking device already installed in the flying saucer," said Nick, "because it doesn't look like we'll have the time to do anything but take off as soon as we get there!"

Meanwhile, the police car with it's flashing lights and siren made it easy for the giant-sized Caitlin and Lacey to identify the vehicle Nick and james were in.

The girls wasted no time, and stomped on cars and structures if they got in their way. They hopped over traffic lights, but Derek's car always seemed to stay the same distance ahead of them.

"It's going to fast!" said Caitlin. "We'll never catch up!"

"Don't speak too soon!" said Lacey, as she ripped a traffic light out of the ground, stood up, aimed, cocked it back, and threw it toward Derek's Camaro. The debris landed in front of Derek's car, causing him to slow down and swerve around it.

"We're about five minutes away right now!" said Bobby. James looked out the rear window and saw another police car join the pursuit.

"We've got another one after us!" said James. "That's two cop cars chasing us now!"

"What about the giant girls?" Bobby asked. "How close are they?"

"They're maintaining the same distance it seems like," said James, "but I would go faster if I were you, just in case!"

"We're already doing 90!" said Bobby. "How fast can they run, Nick?"

"They're close to two hundred feet tall, so they have a leg span of close to a hundred feet. I would say they can run a hundred yards every few seconds."

"What does that calculate to in miles per hour?" Bobby asked.

"I've never tried to calculate the gait of a Dakadanian before, it never came up in the graphic novel!" said Nick. "But I know one thing, even if they can keep up with us for a short period of time, they're going to have to stop to catch their breath eventually!"

"The next off-ramp takes us close to my property!" said Bobby. "I hope the police don't use spike strips!"

"If we get popped before we get to the saucer, I'm gonna be pissed!" said Nick.

Meanwhile, Caitlin and Lacey were struggling to keep up with Bobby's car. They thundered along the freeway, occasionally accidentally stomping on slower vehicles that were stuck in traffic. When they came close to Bobby's car, they tried to jump to catch up, but they fell short.

"I'm getting tired!" said Caitlin. "I can't keep up with them!"

"We have to stay as close to them as possible!" said Lacey, looking behind her at Caitlin. "We have to put in a good effort!"

Caitlin doubled over and held onto her knees with her hands, and caught her breath. "You go ahead without me!"

"I know a shortcut if we take the streets!" said Lacey. "I know we won't be able to get there before them, but we might be able to get there at the same time as them!"

"Okay!" said Caitlin, standing up. "Lead the way!"

Bobby drove the car around corners at a high rate of speed, grazing parked cars along the way. "Does that saucer need to be re-fueled?" Bobby asked.

"It's solar powered," said Nick. "In the story where the characters used it, they took off twenty or thirty years in the future, so the technology is a lot more advanced than ours. It can't fly indefinitely, but it can go pretty far before it needs to land and re-charge."

'We're almost there!" said Bobby. "Another five hundred yards!"

"Pull up right next to the saucer," said Nick, "we're barely going to have enough time to disembark, jump in, and take off!"

"I won't be able to say goodbye to my wife!" said Bobby. "It's just as well, her real husband was a twin of mine from a parallel universe who got killed on Dakadania anyways!"

Meanwhile, Caitlin and Lacey jumped over the wall separating the freeway from the nearby homes in the area, and leaped onto the street on the other side. Lacey made her way to the main street, and followed it toward Bobby's property, while Caitlin followed close behind. They had no choice but to stomp parked cars along the way as they made a mad dash to their destination. Caitlin tripped over a traffic light and destroyed it as she tried to pass, they were in too much of a hurry to try to avoid running into things, or destroying things.

"There's two more cop cars tailing us!" said James, looking out the rear window. Bobby shifted into a higher gear and sped up, until he saw the saucer in his back yard. He went through the back gate, tearing through a chain and padlock, which thoroughly damaged the front of his car and cracked his windshield. The car screeched to a stop right next to the saucer as the four police cars came to a stop nearby. Caitlin and Lacey arrived at the same time as the last police cruiser arrived on the property.

Nick, James, and Bobby leaped from Bobby's Camaro, and Nick opened the gullwing doors and they piled in. Nick activated the control console and piloted it, and the saucer flew vertically into the air while the gullwing doors were still open. Lacey jumped into the air and tried to grab the saucer as it rose in the air, but it was rising too swiftly, and all she grabbed was air. James could see the officers shooting at them from several hundred yards below as the saucer ascended, as well as Caitlin and Lacey towering over the police before Nick activated the controls that closed the doors.

"They got away!" said Caitlin, disappointed.

"Never mind that," Lacey replied, "Nick and James will be in our hands soon enough! We have to get back to suicide ridge, and go through the dimensional nexus point back to Dakadania!!" Caitlin followed Lacey, and they made their way back toward the coast.

Meanwhile, back on the saucer, James and Bobby had strapped themselves into their seats. "Where to now?" James asked.

"I know of a dimensional nexus point where there are no tractor beams that can capture our saucer once we reach Dakadania!" said Tony.

"Is there any guarantee that the nexus points of this world correspond with the ones in your graphic novel?" said Bobby, still clutching the 'magic' lamp.

"No, but we don't really have much choice," said Nick. "So far, everything I've had in the graphic novel has panned out in the real version of Dakadania!"

"How far is the nexus point?" James asked.

"About two hundred miles away, so we should be there within a few minutes," said Nick.

"How fast can this thing go?" Bobby asked.

"It can travel at hypersonic speed, that's five times the speed of sound, but I'm not sure of the top speed, I never addressed that in the comic," said Nick. "But I know it's fast."

"Do you have the cloaking device activated?" James asked.

"Oh, thanks for reminding me!" said Nick, as he flipped a switch. "There's a new sequence of buttons here on the control console that weren't there before Bobby made his wish!"

Nick piloted the flying saucer over the Ocean, with land still in sight. There were no windows in the saucer, but there were three different monitors with views of the outside placed in the middle of their view, and to the left and right.

"Where the hell are you taking us?" James asked.

"The dimensional nexus we are going to travel through changes position to capture downed airplanes," said Nick, "it's somewhere off the coast. We need to locate it so we can shoot through it and return to Dakadania."

"How are you going to locate it?" James asked. "I thought those dimensional nexus thingies were invisible to the naked eye."

"Any dimensional nexus gives off a magnetic signature that can be picked up by certain types of equipment." said Tony. "This saucer comes equipped with a magnetometer that can pinpoint precisely where any dimensional nexus is located! We're almost there right now!"

James unstrapped himself and looked at the gauges on the control console. "Why are we picking up speed?"

"We need to travel at hypersonic speed to evade the tractor beams after we pass through the portal," said Nick. "This isn't going to be easy!"

"What's that image on the monitor on the control console?" James asked.

"That's the magnetic anomaly the magnetometer is detecting. The dimensional portal is somewhere in the center of it!"

"Will it be hard to access?" James asked. "Can we find the portal?"

"The portals between Dakadania and Earth were designed to capture planes, boats and automobiles without any difficulty. Finding the portal isn't the problem, it's navigating through the tractor beams without crashing into something once we reach Dakadania!"

Nick pushed forward on the speed lever, and the saucer picked up speed. "Strap yourself in! We're in for a bumpy ride!"

The saucer tore through the dimensional vortex and emerged in the sky above Dakadania. On Earth they were over water, but over the skies of Dakadania they were over land.

"Why are we over land?" James asked. "We were over water when we were on Earth!"

"The planet Dakadania is 36 times bigger than Earth, so the geography isn't the same," said Nick.

"Shouldn't we be crushed by the square-cube law because of this planet's increased mass?" James asked. "As an engineer, that has me curious!"

"Each atom in the Dakadanian universe has a dimensional matrix involving anti-graviton particles that decrease the weight of any atom, despite the increased mass. Someone intentionally forged this universe, it wasn't created by accident."

"Did we evade the tractor beams?" James asked.

"It looks like it, but I'm not sure if their scanners picked us up or not!" said Nick.

"If we have a cloaking device, they shouldn't have detected us, right?" James asked.

"That's not necessarily true," Nick answered, "they can't see us visually or track us on conventional radar, but they might have a scanner that detects when an object passes through the portal, whether it's cloaked or not!"

"Hopefully, it won't matter," said James. "We just need to find a secluded spot to make a hidden base where we can hide out!"

"We've got bigger problems!" said Nick. "Traveling at hypersonic speed drained our power supply, if we don't find a place to land soon to re-charge, our cloaking device will power down, and we'll be sitting ducks!"

"Then find a secluded spot!" James replied.

"The only places we can choose from are in populated areas!" said Nick.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Lacey and Caitlin were drawing a lot of attention.

"Come on, they're gone!" said Lacey. "We have to get back home! Our only choice is to get back to suicide ridge as fast as possible!"

Lacey turned and ran toward the coast, and Caitlin followed her. They had a distance of about twenty miles to cover, but at their colossal size, it wouldn't take too long to get there. Before long, police and news helicopters were flying over their heads.

"Can they hurt us?" Caitlin asked as the two giantesses ran.

"If they send jets after us they can," said Lacey. "I studied Earth technology in one of my classes back home. They have missiles and ammunition powered by gunpowder that can hurt us."

A group of people watched the scene unfold on a big screen television in a sports bar, and they could simultaneously see Lacey and Caitlin walk by in real life from the huge window of the bar.

"Look!" said a woman. "There they are!" The other patrons turned and watched as the colossal kids thundered through the cityscape.

Lacey turned her head back and spoke to Caitlin. "The streets are too crowded, we can make better time by taking the freeway."

Lacey stepped over some houses to a street that ran next to a large freeway, then stepped onto the actual freeway, crushing the guardrails in the center divider. Caitlin followed close behind, and the two of them began running toward their destination.

"I can see the coast!" said Caitlin.

Just then, three fighter jets scrambled over them, and shot straight toward the coast, then arced vertically before returning and heading straight toward the giant girls. Lacey still had her equipment bag on her, so she reached for her shrink ray-gun and took aim at the fighter jet in the front of the squadron. She took aim when they got close, and pulled the trigger. The lead fighter jet was reduced in size, and slowed down. The other two rallied back into position and came back toward them from behind. Lacey took aim again, and missed. The two jets shot in front of the girls, then shot vertically upwards and turned around to engage the girls again. This time, Lacey took aim and fired on the jet on the right, and connected. It also shrunk down to a dramatically smaller size, identical to the size of the other miniaturized jet. The girls reached the coast, and found their way to suicide ridge.

"Jump!" said Lacey, and the two of them leaped down, and disappeared through the portal and landed in a force field in Dakadania.

Lacey and Caitlin stepped out of the force field that broke their fall once they had returned to Dakadania. The force-field was strong enough to trap a human, but someone the size of a Dakadanian could easily dismiss the invisible bonds. There were a group of older Dakadanians, and the Governess, who was a woman who appeared to be early middle-aged, but was actually hundreds of years old, and they approached Lacey and Caitlin.

"These are the council members who have been monitoring your progress while you were on Earth," said the Governess.

"How did we do?" Caitlin asked.

"Not good, but not bad," said the Governess. "It could have been a lot worse. I'm just glad you girls are back safe!"

"Did Nick and James return to Dakadania?" Caitlin asked.

"Our sensors detected a portal opening up, and that doesn't happen unless a solid object passes through the vortex, but we couldn't detect anything with our other sensors, because their vehicle now seems to be equipped with a powerful cloaking device that is beyond our ability to detect."

"What should I do now?" Caitlin asked.

"Just go back to your regular lives," said the Governess. "Caitlin, you're going to find that you've become quite a celebrity here on Dakadania."

Meanwhile, Nick landed the flying saucer on the roof of an arcade.

"You're landing on a roof?" James asked.

"It's the safest place for now," said Nick. "The main power supply needs to re-charge for a few hours. You wouldn't know it, but this cloaking device really saps power from the system! We're going to have to be careful about how far and how fast we travel from now on, or we'll be detectable by their sensors."

"What should we do in the meantime?" Bobby asked. "Can we do something constructive while we wait for the batteries to re-charge?"

"We can take inventory," said Nick, as he stood up and went to a supply closet. "We should have some cable, carabiners, and grapnel hooks so we can climb up and down in this giant environment." Nick opened the supply closet, and pulled out some equipment. "Look," said Nick, holding up a device that resembled a weapon. "This is a laser cutting tool, for getting in and out of structures."

"Were you serious about what you said back on Earth?" James asked.

"About what?" Nick asked.

"About forming a resistance, and rescuing other earth people from the thunder children?"

"Yes," Nick replied, "but we're going to have to use my last wish if we're going to accomplish our goal. Do you remember when I said if we disintegrated a hole in that door back at Audrey and Caitlin's dormitory, that it would instantly repair itself?"

"Yeah, sure" said James.

"I need to wish for a device that will act as a key, and 'jailbreak' the software to any window or door."

"Sort of like an electronic master key?" James asked.

"Yes," said Nick, "but I wanted to talk to both of you before I went forward with that course of action, because once I make my last wish, we're stuck here until we rescue someone and let them use the lamp."

"I think it would be selfish to use the lamp to rescue ourselves and leave all these little people like us stranded here on Dakadania," said James.

"I agree with James," said Bobby, "every time we rescue someone, we could force them to make two wishes of our choice, and let them have the last wish for themselves."

Nick approached James and Bobby. "Let's form a pact! I think we were offered the chance to come here for a reason. Let's form a resistance and rescue as many other people as we can, and always have each other's backs!" Nick stuck his right hand out, and both James and Bobby stuck their right hands together with Nick's. "Bros forever!" said Nick.

"Bros forever," said James and Bobby simultaneously.

"Now, give me that lamp!" said Nick, and Bobby handed it to him. Nick rubbed the lamp, and said, "I wish for an electronic master key that will allow us to break into any structure on Dakadania."

Instantly, a key formed on the floor of the cockpit of the flying saucer. Nick knelt down and picked it up.

"I landed us on the roof of an arcade for a reason," said Nick. "If things here are exactly as they were in my graphic novel, then there are people trapped in that arcade beneath us, waiting to be won in games of chance by any thunder children who go in there to entertain themselves. They were captured when they fell through a portal connected to a dimensional nexus point, either from a falling airplane, a car that went off a road, or even boats that would've otherwise sank."

"What do you propose we do?" James asked.

"Two of us need to rappel down and try to gain access through a window in an area where we won't be seen, while the third member of our team stays in the saucer, awaiting instructions in case of an emergency." Nick reached into the supply closet and pulled out three communication devices. "If we use these walkie talkies to actually speak to one another, they'll pick up our signal and capture us, but if we text, they won't detect us, just like my protagonists in the graphic novel. Which one of you wants to go with me?"

"I'll go, I'm more expendable," said Bobby. "I don't think either of you should ever go on a mission together, in case both of you get caught."

Nick tossed Bobby a coiled cable, and picked up the laser cutter device. "James, you know how to operate the controls of this saucer, don't you?" Nick asked.

"Yeah, I read the graphic novel!" said James. "I'll keep a close eye on my walkie talkie in case you text me."

"When we open the door of the saucer, we should be detectable by the Dakadanian sensors for a brief period of time," said Nick, "but I'm setting up a distortion pattern that should throw them off. Once you shut the gullwing doors, they shouldn't be able to detect us again."

Nick activated the door, and it swung vertically open. Nick and Bobby took their equipment and exited quickly, and James used the control console to shut the door again.

"Good luck," said James after the men had departed, "you're going to need it!"

Meanwhile, in another part of Dakadania, Caitlin arrived home on the tram and took a shower, then got dressed in a clean schoolgirl uniform and went to school. It was lunch time when she got there, and some of the other kids cheered when she arrived. Audrey Filchner approached her. A boy was with her, he had his arm around her.

"This is Jimmy, my new boyfriend.You won't believe how your reputation has improved since you drove Nick and James back to Dakadania!" said Audrey.

"Really?" Caitlin asked. "Before I left, I was a laughing stock."

"Everyone knows what happened back on Earth," said Audrey. "You and Lacey are heroes."

Caitlin, Audrey and Jimmy went and got their lunch trays and sat down at a table. There was a crowd of kids surrounding the table, whispering to each other and smiling.

"You can have your pick of the cutest boys in the school," said Audrey in between bites of food. "Even the eighth graders."

"You should run for student council!" said Jimmy. "It's an honor that my girlfriend is your dorm mate."

"They still have the lamp!" said Caitlin. "If we did drive them back here to Dakadania, all they have to do is rescue a captive, and they automatically get three more wishes. Do you think we'll ever see them again?"

"Who cares?" said Audrey, as Jimmy kissed her on the neck. "You've accomplished everything you needed to, in order to become the most popular girl on the planet."

"Yeah, I guess," Caitlin replied, "but I have a strange feeling that I'll see Nick and James again."

Back at the arcade, Nick and Bobby had reached an auxiliary door hatch.

"This is where the robotic floor cleaners emerge to clean the outside of the building, and the sidewalks," said Nick. "We can use the master key to get in."

"Will there be giant kids in the arcade?" Bobby asked.

"Not at this time of day," said Nick. "They're all still in school. We couldn't pull this on a weekend during this time of day, though."

"What about the security cameras?" Bobby asked.

"When we rescue the first captive, we'll have them make a wish for a device that can make us invisible to security cameras."

"But the cameras would still have our images from before and during the rescue," Bobby reasoned.

"Yeah, but we can make the captive make a second wish to erase the digital files that the cameras took of us. Then their last wish is whatever they want to wish for."

"Sounds like a good plan!" said Bobby, as the door hatch opened and the two men entered the arcade. They walked through the access tunnel until they came to another door hatch, and Tony used the master key a second time. They emerged into a large room, where there were gaming consoles everywhere.

"Do you see that up there?" said Nick, pointing to a transparent cage with a man and two women inside.

"Yeah," said Bobby.

"We've got to get up there to rescue them," said Nick. "I have a grapnel hook that is fired from a gas-powered cartridge, but we only have two of them, so if we miss more than twice, we're out of luck!" Nick took aim with his grapnel cartridge, and the shot was true and clean; it pierced the plastic paneling above the transparent cage. Nick began climbing. When he reached the cage, he used the master key to digitally hack into the electronic lock controlling the cage, and it released. The door hatch opened. There were three captives, a man and two women.

"I'm here to rescue you!" said Nick. "Climb down this cable and follow me! My name is Nick."

The man and two women followed Nick to the floor, then all five of them ran back to the access tunnel, and made their way back outside the building. The cable Nick and Bobby had climbed down was still hanging from the roof of the arcade, so they climbed up one at a time.

"That was fast!" said James, as the five of them entered the saucer's gull-wing door.

"We left the ropes behind," said Nick. "We need one of these people to wish for a replicator that can make an unlimited quantity of climbing gear and food, but first, we need to deal with those security cameras."

Nick spent a couple of minutes explaining the wishing lamp to the three newcomers, and calmly answered their questions. When everyone was on the same page as far as what was expected of them, the three agreed to use up two of their wishes to help Nick, James, and Bobby rescue more captives, and they would have the third wish for themselves. The man introduced himself as Gary, and he decided to make the first two wishes.

"I wish for a device that can cause a distortion field that Dakadanian security cameras can't pick up, so any humans our size within the distortion field will be invisible to the cameras." Instantly, just such a device appeared on the floor of the cockpit of the flying saucer. "For my second wish, I want all data of Nick and Bobby rescuing us to be purged from the security cameras of the arcade." Gary handed the lamp to one of the women who had just been rescued. "I'll save my last wish for later."

The woman who Gary handed the lamp to had introduced herself as Hilary. "For my first wish, I want a replicator that can manufacture an unlimited supply of climbing gear and food!" Instantly, a device like that appeared next to the main control console, already attached to the main equipment of the saucer's main computer and power supply.

"How long until we can take off?" James asked Nick.

"We can take off any time, but we couldn't get very far with our batteries so low." said Nick. "In about three hours, we should be back at full power."

"The Dakadanian schools get out in two hours," said James. "And that arcade down beneath us will be filled with kids!"

The flying saucer was still on the roof of the arcade. Nick and James were sitting in the flying saucer, which was equipped with a sophisticated cloaking device that kept the saucer invisible to the naked eye, and undetectable by Dakadanian sensors. They were with the three people they had rescued from the arcade, Gary, Hilary, and Drew.

"What are we going to do with those cables we left behind?" James asked. "If the giants find it, they'll know we're here."

"We could probably collect the one that's hanging off the roof of the arcade," said Nick, "but the one inside the arcade is too hard to get, and I don't want to risk going back and trying to get it."

"So we're sitting ducks?" James asked. "We just sit here and wait until those kids get out of school and pile into the arcade?"

"By the time they arrive, we should have enough power to get to a better location where we can wait until the batteries are more fully charged."

"But where could we go?" James asked.

"I've got a weird idea that just might work," said Nick.

"Yeah?" said James. "Let's hear it."

"We could land on the roof of Caitlin and Audrey's dorm. They would never expect a move like that!"

"That's brilliant!" said Bobby. "Good thinking, Nick."

"I think it's a horrible idea," said James. "The people in charge of running Dakadania will be monitoring them like crazy! What makes you think your plan could possibly work?"

"Let's take it to a vote," said Nick. "I vote we land on Caitlin and Audrey's roof, just long enough to re-charge the main batteries. Who's with me?"

"I vote with Nick," said Bobby, raising his hand.

"Me too," said Gary.

Hilary raised her hand, "I vote with you guys."

Drew, the other woman they had rescued raised her hand and voted with the others.

"Looks like you're outnumbered, James." said Nick. "Besides, that new replicator drains even more power from our batteries, so we have even less power than before."

"So it's gonna take longer to re-charge?" James asked.

"A little bit longer," said Nick. "The navigation computer has a map that shows where we originated, which is Caitlin's dorm. According to the power supply gauge, it won't be too long before we can make a direct flight path back to her dorm, and from there we can wait until we're completely powered up to find a safer location."

"Where can we establish a home base," said Bobby, "after we take off from Caitlin's dorm?"

"I think we should establish several bases of operation," said Nick. "That way, in case one gets discovered by giants, we can always escape to another one. I know of some rural areas where there should be some good hiding places."

"What do you want us to do?" Hilary asked.

"You and the others we've rescued can help out any way you can," said Nick. "each one of you needs to learn how to pilot this ship, and work the controls."

Nick spent the next half hour explaining the control console to everyone on board, until they were as familiar with the system as he was. By the time he was finished, school was out and kids started entering the arcade below.

"We should have one of the rescued former hostages wish for a surveillance device so we can spy on the kids down in the arcade, to see if they're coming after us," said James.

"Good idea!" said Nick. "Any volunteers?"

The other woman they rescued stepped up. Her name was Drew. "I'll take a crack at it," said Drew. "I don't mind using up my first wish, if it's going to help people escape from the giants." Drew took the lamp from Bobby, and made her wish. "I wish for surveillance equipment that can spy on the inside of any structure the saucer lands on, without the Dakadanians being aware that they're being detected."

Right then, a new console appeared out of thin air, It was connected to the other equipment, and had a monitor that was tuned in to the room below them. All of them crowded around and looked, and they could see the arcade games in the room below. Giant kids could be seen entering the arcade, and some of them were playing games.

"Looks like it's going to be a busy day in the arcade," said Nick. "It's a good thing we got out of there when we did."

"What if a kid discovers the cables we left behind?" James asked.

"Hopefully they won't be able to figure out we're on the roof," said Nick. "Besides, even if they look for us up here, our vessel is cloaked, so they would have a hard time finding us." Nick looked at the control console. "I've got more bad news, though."

"What is it this time?" James asked.

"The new surveillance device is draining even more power from the main batteries, so it's going to take even longer before we can take off and fly to Caitlin's."

"We should've gotten that cable that we left attached to the roof," said Phillip, "while you were explaining how the control console works, we forgot all about it. Is it too risky to go out and try to get it now?"

"I'll go with Bobby to get it," said Nick. "But first we need to figure out a way to track any member of our group if they get captured."

"You mean like a subcutaneous transponder?" said James.

"Yeah," Nick replied.

"Wouldn't that make it easier for the giants to track us, too?" James asked.

"We could have Drew make a wish for a device that injects us with a transponder that the Dakadanians can't track," said Nick.

"I guess that sounds good," said James, but we're burning through wishes too quickly. Each person we rescue only has three wishes, and we're only getting two wishes from each person we rescue, because we're giving them the third wish."

"Then we'll just have to rescue more people," said Nick. "It would only be a wasted wish if it was something temporary, like wishing for our power supply to be at one hundred percent. As long as we use the wishes wisely, then they're not wasted."

Drew held onto the lamp. "Do you want me to wish for the transponder injector the Dakadanians can't track?"

"Yeah, you might as well," said Nick.

Drew rubbed the lamp and said, "I wish for a transponder injector that will give us each transponders that we can track with a device on the control console of the saucer, that the Dakadanians can't track." Instantly, a small device appeared attached to the control console, with a small monitor on it, and on the floor of the saucer, the injector Drew wished for materialized. Nick picked it up.

"We all need to inject ourselves," said Nick, as he injected himself. Nick passed the device around to the others. When they had all injected themselves, he looked on the new monitor that showed digital blips that represented where each of them were. Nick glanced at the power gauge. "We've almost got enough power to get to Caitlin's."

James walked over and glanced at the new monitor that tracked their new transponder signals. He happened to glance at the surveillance monitor, and saw that some of the kids in the arcade had found the cable and grapnel hook that they used to rescue Gary, Hilary, and Drew.

"They found the cable that was left behind in the arcade," said James. "It's only a matter of time before they look around and figure out we're on the roof. Maybe we should try to get that cable that's hanging off the roof, what do you think, Nick?"

"No, we've got just about enough power to get to Caitlin's," Nick responded.

"But how much longer?" James asked. "I don't want to end up in the belly of some sadistic schoolgirl, know what I mean?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but it shouldn't be more than a few more minutes," said Nick. "But if we do take off then, we'll be totally drained once we land on Caitlin's roof, so we'll have to be careful."

"That whole plan wreaks of incompetence," said James. "We should find a rural area and re-charge the batteries there, then if we want to go to Caitlin's, we can do that after we're at full power."

"But they're looking for us," said Nick. "We're going to have to take turns sleeping, and go on shifts to make sure we're not discovered. It doesn't matter where we land, we're still on the run. My theory is that their search for us won't be as extreme at Caitlin and Audrey's dorm, because that's the last place they would expect us to go. Sort of reverse psychology, if you will. We probably don't even have enough power to get to a truly rural, secluded area any way."

Just then, on the surveillance monitor, two girls and a boy exited the rear of the arcade and walked around the side, where the cable was hanging. The boy found the cable, and pulled on it. One of the girls was pointing toward the roof, and the boy went and got a ladder that had been sitting in the back yard of the place near some maintenance equipment. The boy propped the ladder up against the roof, and the boy held the ladder while one of the girls climbed up to the roof.

"We're going to have company!" said James. "A Dakadanian girl is climbing a ladder! If we don't take off fast, they'll find us for sure!"

Nick told everyone to strap themselves in, and worked the controls. The saucer lifted off just as the giantess got close to the saucer. Once they were in the air, Tony deftly maneuvered the saucer on a flight path that would take them on a straight path back to their point of origin, which was Caitlin and Audrey's dorm. It only took a few minutes to get there, and soon they landed safely on the roof of Caitlin and Audrey's dorm without incident.

"I still think this is a bad idea," said James.

"Will you stop saying that?" said Nick. "Once the saucer is at a hundred percent, we can fly further away to a rural area and make a base, but we only have a limited amount of daylight, so if we don't get re-charged by nightfall, we'll be stuck wherever we landed."

The others unstrapped themselves from their seats and looked at the monitors. Nick switched the surveillance equipment on, and they could see inside Caitlin's dorm. Both Caitlin and Audrey were there, as well as a couple of other girls. Nick looked through each room in the structure, and saw that there were multiple captives, some in each bedroom, and some in the main living room area where the giant girls were gathered.

"There are captives inside," said Nick. They all observed what was happening in the living room area of Caitlin and Audrey's dorm.

Caitlin was sitting at a table, and the captives she had captured when she was back on Earth were wandering around the table top. Audrey and two other giant girls were sitting there watching. Caitlin slammed her fist down on the table. "How would you like to surrender to the gullet of a goddess?" Caitlin asked them with a sinister smile.

"We have to rescue them!" said Nick, as he watched the action in Caitlin's dorm on the surveillance monitor.

"Why take the chance?" James asked. "When we're at full power we can try, but for now we should just wait until night fall and let the batteries re-charge."

"The whole point of doing all of this is to rescue people," said Nick. "Otherwise, we could've just used the lamp to wish to go somewhere else, where it's guaranteed to be safe."

"I'm not saying we shouldn't conduct a rescue," said James. "I'm just saying we should wait until night time."

"I agree with James," said Gary. "If one of you got captured, we don't have enough power to escape from this place. We should definitely wait until the main batteries are at full power."

"Okay, we'll wait for nightfall, if that's the consensus," said Nick. "But when the time comes to perform the rescue attempt, who's going with me?"

Bobby stepped forward. "I'll go with you, Nick. We make a good team, and it would be good for James to stay behind to watch the saucer."

"Okay, then it's settled," said Nick. "We'll use the replicator to make dinner, then we wait until it gets dark, and the two of us will break into Caitlin and Audrey's dorm.

Several hours passed, and twilight arrived and went, and darkness descended. They had all eaten, and they replicated the climbing gear that Nick and Bobby would need. They had the gas powered cartridges, the cables, and and the grapnel hooks. The power supply was at one hundred percent, and all non-essential equipment was turned off to conserve power, with the exception of the surveillance equipment.

"Well, here we go!" said Nick, with the climbing gear strapped over his shoulder. "James, text us if something pops up on the surveillance monitor." Bobby also had his equipment. James operated the control console and opened the gull-wing doors, and the two men stepped outside onto the roof. James quickly closed the door hatch by remote control on the control console.

Nick and Bobby looked around. There were various apparatus connected to the roof, much like a conventional roof on Earth. Nick had analyzed where in the dorm they wanted to go, and knew the closest structure on the roof to tie a grapnel hook to in order to climb down. Once it was secure, they climbed down one at a time, with Nick going first. Once he was standing on the window sill of Caitlin's bedroom, he waited for Bobby. They went one at a time so their weight wouldn't overload the cable. Once Bobby was on the window sill, they looked in and saw that no giants were in the room. Nick could see a shelf where normal-sized humans were trapped in some kind of a plastic container.

Nick used the master key to digitally hack into the control panel that controlled the window, and it slid open without any problems. Nick stepped inside, followed by Bobby.

Once they were inside, the window slid closed again.

"Uh-oh!" said Nick. "It closed on us!"

In the main living room area, Caitlin got up. "I thought I heard something from my bedroom!" Caitlin and the other three girls walked toward the bedroom and entered, and spotted Nick and Bobby. Caitlin quickly grabbed both of them. "I've got you!" said Caitlin, recognizing Nick. "Why did you come back, did you miss me?"

Back in the saucer, the others were frantic. "We've got to do something!" said Gary, grabbing the lamp. "If I take the lamp down there, I can use my last wish to rescue Tony and Bobby, then we can give the lamp to one of the other captives so they have three more wishes." Gary went to the replicator and had it replicate more climbing gear.

James tried to grab the lamp from Gary, who was activating the gull-wing doors. When the door opened, Gary stormed out with the lamp and climbing gear. James ran after him, and tackled Gary to the ground of the roof of Caitlin's dorm. The men began fighting, and the lamp was knocked out of Gary's grasp, and went dangerously close to the edge of the roof. James and Gary continued to fight it out, but Gary got up and in an effort to reach the lamp, accidentally kicked it and it flew off the edge of the roof.

"You idiot!" said James. Both men peered down from the roof of Caitlin's dorm. The lamp was far beneath them, on the ground on the side of the structure."If that lamp falls back into the hands of those thunder children, we're doomed!"

Zack Dugan was penniless as usual, walking down the sidewalk on a typical Friday in August, hoping his fortune would change. He spotted a hundred dollar bill floating in the breeze near a bank ATM, and snagged it. About a block further down the street, an unusual vehicle was parked that resembled a Ferrari or a Lhamborghini, but was neither. Zack couldn't recognize the make or model of the vehicle. A young man got out, and introduced himself to Zack.

"Hi, my name won't matter to you, but I'm about to tell you something that is beyond belief, so please hear me out."

"What kind of a car is this?" Zack asked.

"It's not a car as you know them," the strange man answered, "this is a time vehicle disguised to look like a car."

"Really?" Zack asked. "You're from the future?"

"I'm from about five-thousand years in the future. I can win a spot at Oxford University in my century if I win a scavenger hunt, so I can’t afford to lose the contest. Getting into a prestigious University is much more difficult in my time than it is in the 21st century."

"I'm taking a year off from school myself," said Zack. "I graduated high school a couple of months ago, and I plan on starting junior college in about a year. So what do you need from me?"

"I need a hundred dollar bill from this era, and I can't replicate it, or they'll know I cheated. I'm being monitored, and there are only specific ways I can acquire it. I can't steal it, someone has to give it to me willingly, but I'm allowed to trade for it."

"I have a hundred bucks I just found, but without it, I'd be broke as a joke!" Zack replied.

"I think we can come to an agreement," said the time traveler. "In addition to making you immortal, so you'll never need food, water, or need to use the bathroom ever again, I can give you your dream. What is something you've always wanted?"

"How about a shrink ray gun?" Zack asked. "I could pick up on a hot college chick, and have her shrink me!"

The young man from the future pulled out a small device and handed it to Zack. It was in a baggie, with some paperwork and a flash drive inside, and a charger as well. "Here is a neutrino dissimilator! It's a more simplified version, so it can be easily reverse-engineered by scientists from your era. My counterpart from my near future traveled back in time to let me know exactly when and where to go, and what I would need to acquire the one hundred dollar bill from you, that's why I'm so well prepared."

Zack took the baggie with the device and other items inside.

The future man pulled out another device, and aimed it at Zack. "One pull from this trigger, and you're immortal. Do we have a deal?"

Zack pulled out his wallet, and handed over the hundred dollar bill. The man aimed and pulled the trigger. "You're immortal now. You're invulnerable to temperature extremes, you'll never need food or water again unless you choose to eat or drink, and you'll never need to use the bathroom unless you drink more water." The man pulled out another device and handed it to Zack. "This is a neural stimulator, if some woman swallows you after you're miniaturized, she can use this to make herself vomit you up. The immortality I gave you also makes you invulnerable to stomach acid. It was a pleasure doing business with you! Oh, and by the way, whoever keys that shrink ray gun to recognize their unique chromosome pattern will be the only person able to operate the shrink ray, so don't let it fall into the wrong hands."

The man got back in his futuristic vehicle, and the gull-wing door slid shut, and the vehicle sped off into the distance and turned a corner, and was gone.

"I'm in Alyssa Archer's neighborhood," said Zack to himself, "her dad is an electrical engineer and her mom is CEO of an electronics research and development firm, so maybe I should show her the shrink ray gun."

Zack walked a few blocks and knocked on a door. A dark blonde-haired girl about 11 years old answered the door, wearing shorts and a tank top.

"Hi, Zack!" said Alyssa. "What brings you here?"

"You're not going to believe this!" said Zack. "I think I have a shrink ray gun!" Zack waved the baggie in front of her, and Alyssa could see what looked like a pistol inside.

"Come on in!" said Alyssa. "My parents aren't home right now."

"I met a guy from five-thousand years in the future, and he made me immortal and gave me a shrink ray pistol," said Zack. "I don't ever need to eat or drink water again, or use the bathroom."

Zack dumped out the baggie on the dining room table. There was a neutrino dissimilator pistol, a charging device, a flash drive, and some paperwork. The neural stimulator was also on the table. Alyssa took the paperwork and started reading.

Zack continued: "Since your Dad is an electrical engineer, I was hoping he could try to reverse engineer it, so we could get rich! Since your mom and my mom are friends, I knew I could trust you."

Alyssa replied: "It says here, that you shrink someone or something by keying one of the buttons on the sizing scope. Each button corresponds to a particular ratio, so one over seventy-two would reduce a six foot tall man down to an inch tall!"

"I'm just about six feet tall!" said Zack.

"Do you want to volunteer so I can test it out?" Alyssa asked.

"Sure, why not?" said Zack, and he stood up and walked to the center of the living room. "Rock and roll!"

As soon as Zack held his right thumb up, Alyssa pressed the 1/72 button, and Zack was instantly reduced down to an inch tall. Alyssa knelt down and looked at Zack. She lowered the palm of her hand in front of him.

"Step onto my hand, I command you!" said Alyssa.

"You command me?" Zack asked, as he stepped onto her palm. "Alyssa, don't get carried away!" Alyssa rose to a standing position, carefully cupping Zack with her right hand as he stood on her left palm.

"You don't get any say in the matter any more," said Alyssa, "You were stupid for trusting me. I'm keeping you this size, and I'm never showing the shrink ray to my parents, I'm keeping it a secret!"

Alyssa went to the kitchen and got a coffee mug that was too steep for Zack to climb out of, and dropped him in. She carried the mug to her bedroom. She set the mug on her desk, then retrieved the contents of the baggie the shrink ray pistol came in, as well as the neural stimulator. She had a home computer in her bedroom, so she plugged the flash drive into her computer, and began reading.

"It says here that I can key the shrink ray gun to my unique chromosome pattern, so no one else can use it. I think I'll do that!"

Alyssa went to a shelf and got some bubble gum, and opened a piece and began chewing. When it was moist, she followed the directions on the flash drive and hooked up the cable from the charger cord to the shrink ray pistol on one end, and into the USB port on her computer on the other end. She pressed the piece of bubble gum into a sensor on the pistol, and a green light came on.

"Done!" said Alyssa. "According to the instructions, I've successfully programmed the shrink ray to only respond to my dna!" Alyssa got the bubble gum and put it back in her mouth. "Zack, now that you're my prisoner, let's blow a bubble together!"

Alyssa dumped the inch tall Zack into her hand, and popped him into her mouth. She carefully maneuvered her tongue so she could manipulate the gum without hurting Zack, and tried to blow a bubble with Zack inside the bubble. Zack tried to stay still, but the bubble didn't stay whole for too long, and collapsed around him, so he felt himself being pulled back into Alyssa's mouth by her tongue.

She blew another bubble, and this time, Zack was successfully inside. Alyssa kept blowing the bubble until it popped, then laughed as she dragged Zack back into her mouth with her tongue.

"There's no escape from me!" said Alyssa. "So you're immortal now, right Zack? I wonder how long you can last in my stomach."

"Wait!" said Zack. "That other device is a neural stimulator, it will make you vomit if I'm in your stomach!"

Alyssa pulled Zack out of her mouth with one hand, then shoved Zack back into the coffee mug. She reached over and grabbed the neural stimulator.

"You mean this thingie?"

"Yes!" said Zack. "I don't want to be trapped in your stomach."

Zack tried to untangle himself from the bubble gum that surrounded his body. Alyssa reached in and grabbed him just as he untangled himself. She lifted him above her mouth, and licked her lips while gazing at him.

"How would it feel to end up in the belly of an eleven year old girl?" Alyssa asked.

Before Zack could respond, Alyssa let go of him, and Zack tumbled down onto her tongue. Alyssa closed her mouth around him, and swallowed him! Alyssa lifted her shirt slightly, revealing her belly button, and laughed. She soon directed her attention to the computer, and read up on the theory behind miniaturization. After about ten minutes, she felt she knew enough, and reached for the neural stimulator.

Meanwhile, in the depths of Alyssa's stomach, Zack swam around in her chyme. It was very warm, but the heat of her stomach didn't bother him, because of his immortality. The ten minutes swimming around went by quickly, so when Alyssa aimed the neural stimulator at her head and pulled the trigger, Zack was forced upwards through Alyssa's esophagus, and through her mouth and down and out into a bowl Alyssa had gotten from the kitchen. Alyssa fished Zack out of the vomit.

"So how was it in there?" Alyssa asked.

"Not too bad," said Zack.

"Well, you'd better get used to it!" said Alyssa. "It's going to happen a lot!"

Alyssa held the inch-tall Zack on her left palm as she spoke with him.

“You wouldn’t believe how technical the shrinking theory is! Over 99 percent of the matter composing the quarks, gluons and electrons are converted into neutrinos!”

“Is it possible to build one with contemporary technology?” Zack asked.

“I’m not sure,” Alyssa replied, “there are quite a few devices that work together to make shrinking happen, like a device that detects the gravimetric signature of quarks, gluons, and electrons, and another device that generates a dimensional membrane around the miniaturized sub-atomic particles to protect them from the normal sized environment.”

“How were you able to comprehend all of that, if you’re only eleven?” Zack asked.

“My Dad is an electrical engineer, and I excel at math and science!” said Alyssa. “You’re not one of those people who thinks girls aren’t good at math, are you?”

“Of course not, Alyssa!” said Zack. “I had a math tutor that was female, she had a master’s degree in mathematics.”

Alyssa grabbed a digital stopwatch from a desk drawer. “How about I swallow you again, and I time it?”

Before Zack had a chance to react, Alyssa had grabbed him and tossed him to the back of her mouth and swallowed him, then clicked the stopwatch to turn it on. She grabbed one of her own flash drives from her desk drawer and plugged it into her computer, and downloaded all the files from the flash drive Zack had acquired from the time traveler.

Alyssa had a printer attached to her computer, so she printed out the information related to the function of the shrink ray device.

Just then, a car pulled into the driveway.

“Uh-oh! My Mom’s home!” said Alyssa. She had the digital stopwatch on a lanyard she wore around her neck.

Mrs. Archer came through the front door carrying bags of groceries in reusable cloth bags.

“Why are you wearing your stopwatch, Alyssa?”

“Just because,” Alyssa replied.

“Did you clean your room today?” Mrs. Archer asked Alyssa.

“Yes, it’s pretty clean.”

“I’m going in to check,” Mrs. Archer said, as she stepped in the direction of Alyssa’s bedroom.

“Mom, don’t go in there!” Alyssa shouted, blocking the entrance to the door.

“Alyssa, what’s gotten into you?” Mrs. Archer asked.

“I’m working on some stuff, Mom! Give me a few minutes.”

Mrs. Archer pushed past Alyssa and went into the room. She spotted the flash drives and the paperwork that Alyssa had printed out. Mrs. Archer picked up the papers and looked them over.

“This information is really technical, where did you get these schematics, Alyssa?”

"Zack brought this stuff over this afternoon, he got it all from a time traveler, he was hoping Dad could reverse engineer the shrink ray.”

“Shrink ray?” Mrs. Archer asked.

Alyssa grabbed the shrink ray device and handed it to her mother.

“Zack gave you all of this?” Mrs. Archer asked. “Where is he now?”

“He took off, he said he had to go somewhere.”

“If this technology really works, we could get rich if we could patent it!” said Mrs. Archer. “Have you tried out the shrink ray?”

“Yes, it’s keyed into my unique chromosome pattern. I’m the only one who can make it work.”

Mrs. Archer handed the shrink ray device to her daughter. “Use it to shrink that coffee mug, Alyssa!”

Alyssa pointed the device at the mug, and pulled the trigger; it was reduced to 1/72 of its normal size, putting it on the same scale as Zack.

Mrs. Archer knelt down and looked Alyssa in the eyes.

“Alyssa, do you know what this means? We’re going to make history and get rich with this invention!”

Mrs. Archer reached into her purse and pulled out two twenty dollar bills.

“Here’s money so you can order pizza tonight, I’m going back to work to try to upload this technology to the company mainframe computer!” Mrs. Archer took the shrink ray pistol and the usb drive with the technical information on it, and headed out the door.

Alyssa took the money, and said, “Mom! You can’t take my shrink ray gun!”

Mrs. Archer got into her car and pulled out of the driveway, and was gone. Alyssa pulled out her cell phone and called her one of her friends.

"Victoria? I've got something I want to show you, can I come over?"

"Sure!" Victoria replied over the phone, and Alyssa put her cell phone in her backpack and jumped on her bicycle and rode to Victoria's house.

Once there, she knocked on the door, and Victoria let her in.

"What do you have to show me?" Victoria asked.

"It's in my stomach," said Alyssa, "do you know of any way of making someone vomit?"

"My sister might, she's in college," said Victoria., who went down the hallway to her older sister's bedroom. A few seconds later, the older sister came out.

"I'm Britney," said the older girl, "You need syrup of Ipecac, I think we have some in the first aid kit in the hallway."

Britney retrieved the syrup of Ipecac, and gave it to Alyssa. "Just drink some, it'll make you puke."

Alyssa drank some of the Ipecac syrup, and a few moments later, she vomited into the kitchen sink, and sure enough, Zack came tumbling out of her mouth.

"She was right!" Victoria said. All three girls were crowded around the sink. Alyssa reached in and grabbed Zack, and rinsed him off in the sink.

"How did he get so small?" Victoria asked.

"He came to my house with a shrink ray gun, so I shrunk him!" said Alyssa. "He knows me well enough that he should've been aware that he couldn't trust me."

"So, you're just going to keep him?" Britney asked. "And keep him, like some kind of a pet?"

"Sure, why not?" Alyssa asked. "He's immortal, so when I grow up, I can pass him onto my daughter."

"I want him!" said Victoria. "Let me have him, Alyssa, you can shrink another captive!"

"My mom took my shrink ray!" said Alyssa. "She took it to work to try to reverse engineer it!"

Victoria grabbed Zack from Alyssa, and Alyssa allowed her to hold him.

"We're like gods to him!" said Victoria. "How does it feel to be nothing but a toy, little man?"

"Answer her, Zack!" Alyssa commanded.

"It feels okay, I guess," Zack replied. "But how long are you going to keep me this size, Alyssa?"

"Indefinitely!" Alyssa responded, and all three girls began laughing.

"We need to find somewhere to keep Zack," said Alyssa to Britney. "I don't want my mom or dad to find him in my bedroom, and the same thing could happen with your parents here. Do you know of any safe place where we could keep him?"

"I know of an abandoned house where the older teenagers party, there's supposed to be a keg party there tonight," Britney replied. "But if we keep him there, we are going to have to share him with about six other girls."

"That won't be a problem," said Alyssa, "as long as Zack is safe."

Meanwhile, at Milenko research facility, Alyssa's mom had taken the technology and showed it to Alyssa's dad. After showing him the shrunken coffee cup, she showed him the other equipment that Zack had given to Alyssa.

"If we hook up the flash drive that came with the shrink ray," said Mrs. Archer to Mr. Archer, "it shows the schematics for how miniaturization takes place. The process is known scientifically as neutrino dissimilation."

Mr. Archer hooked up the flash drive to a computer, and began reading the schematics.

"There are five or six devices that would need to be invented before we could build a functional neutrino dissimilator in our day and age," said Mr. Archer. "There is a device that detects the gravimetric signature of quarks, gluons and electrons, and another device that establishes a dimensional membrane around the sub-atomic particles that get miniaturized."

"Not impossible, but as long as it shows us how to construct all the components of the neutrino dissimilator device, we should be okay, but it's going to take some time. Where did Alyssa acquire this technology?"

"She said Zack encountered a time traveler and brought this stuff over to our house."

"And where is Zack?" Mr. Archer asked.

"Alyssa said he went home," said Mrs. Archer.

"You should probably check on Zack," said Mr. Archer, "knowing our daughter, she probably shrunk him and is keeping him prisoner somewhere."

A wealthy man named Hayden Hawk sat at a table, during a meeting with members of his staff.

"As you know, our network needs ratings if we are going to compete. I have a solution that may meet our criteria. One thousand criminals were miniaturized and purchased by us, to do with as we please. I have rented a time taxi to take the shrunken people to a specific location in the early 21st century, and we will have video cameras in a parallel dimension catching everything, and transmitting it to us here in the present. Are there any questions?"

A man named Steve Sanderson raised his hand. "When the shrunken people are attacked, is there a specific predator you have in mind?"

Mr. Hawk answered, "Her name is Drusilla Dyson, a 13-year-old athlete. She is training for the junior Olympics, and she runs on a trail at a specific time during the morning hours." An image of Drusilla appeared on a monitor so they all could see her. "We will place the miniature city in her path. We've done a covert analysis of her temperament, and it is almost guaranteed that she will wipe out the shrunken people."

The men and women in the room seated at the table began clapping.

"I've got to hand it to you," said Mr. Sanderson, "you came up with something that could really boost our ratings!"

"There's more," said Mr. Hawk, "I've provided a way for the tiny people to defeat the girl who will attack them, but they don't know how to orchestrate this. I've given them a former electrical engineer, and as far as I know, none of the rest of the captives know how to manipulate the technology they have been provided with."

"Do you think he will be able to figure it out?" Mr. Sanderson asked.

"That's what people will pay to see," Mr. Hawk replied. "Micro video cameras are placed throughout the miniature colony, so we will be able to see and hear what the ant sized people are saying to one another. We will also have a worm's eye view of Drusilla, as well as shots from the perspective of normal sized people from that other dimensional continuum."

"Can we view what happens live, before it's uploaded to the network?" Mr. Sanderson asked.

"From our perspective," Mr. Hawk replied, "this happened many thousands of years ago. The temporal transmission that was beamed back to us was received in it's entirety, so the computer knows what happened already. Ladies and gentlemen, we will be the first to view this adventure!" Mr. Hawk keyed a remote control, and the video monitor began playing the transmission.

*****

Somewhere in California some time in the year 2020...

There was a dirt path popular with joggers, it was still early in the morning. There were surrounding hillsides, and the sun hadn't quite risen above the nearest hill, though it was light out. The colony had just been placed near the path. A loudspeaker was in the center of the colony, as the inhabitants exited their dwellings to survey their surroundings. They were all the same height as the length of a typical ant. The colony stretched out (by their measurement) for about two miles in one direction, and was about half a mile wide.

The loudspeaker addressed the miniaturized criminals: "Attention inhabitants of the miniaturized colony! You have all been placed here so you can be killed for entertainment purposes. Your bodies are immortal, needing no food or water, but you can be killed by stomach acid or by being stomped to death. A teenage girl will discover your colony in less than 20 minutes. A mind control transmitter has been programmed to control the minds of anyone other than her, so they will run past the colony without discovering it. There is a way you can all defeat the girl who will attack you, but you have no way of knowing what that method is, and you have less than 20 minutes to implement it."

Timothy Terranova stepped out into the midst of the other tiny colonists. "I'm an electrical engineer, I might be able to re-program the mind control transmitter so it will work on the girl!"

Another man stepped up beside Tim. "I'm Brett Burleson, my grandfather was an electrician, so I know something about this. I say we use the power from the solar cells to send a flash of light that will blind her! If she can't see, she can't attack us!"

"I wouldn't recommend that," said Tim, "If we miss, we'll have drained all the solar cells, and by the time they've re-charged the batteries, the girl would've wiped us out!"

Brett replied,"My grandfather was an electrician, so I know what I'm talking about! It would take too long to re-program the mind control device!"

"But that won't work!" said Tim. "I know from experience that our only hope is to re-program the mind control transmitter!"

"Blinding her will be faster!" shouted one of the other colonists. Many others agreed with him. "Let's take it to a vote! Who agrees with blinding her?"

Almost everyone raised their hand.

"And who agrees with using mind control on her?" the man asked. Only a few people raised their hands.

Brett went with some of the others to the control room, to implement Brett's plan to blind the girl with a flash of light.

"I think your plan would work better," said one of the men to Tim Terranova, "but they won't listen to us."

After about fifteen minutes, Brett had a control tower equipped with a laser-type weapon powered by the main battery that got it's power from the solar cells.

"We're ready!" said Brett. "The girl should be here any minute!"

Before long, the young teenage girl arrived during her morning jog. To normal sized people, she was a tanned half Mexican, half-white athletic girl, but to the people of the miniaturized colony, she was a beautiful behemoth. She wore a violet tee-shirt and dark pink shorts, and white socks and pink running shoes.The girl spotted the colony, and jogged toward it. From her perspective, it was about five feet long and two feet wide. Most of the colonists were standing in an area where she could see them, and they bowed to her.

"What is this?" the girl asked.

The loudspeaker made an announcement that had been pre-recorded by the people who had purchased and miniaturized them.

"This is a colony of shrunken people from the year 5150. They are violent criminals, and as an elaborate form of execution, they are here at your disposal, to do with as you please!"

"My name is Drusilla, and I'm your conqueror!"

Drusilla stepped on a section of the structures and crushed some of the barracks where some of the colonists lived. Inside the control room, Brett aimed the laser at Drusilla's face; he fired, but she happened to look away when it hit her face. She was unharmed.

"We missed her eyes!" said Brett. "We won't get another chance until the solar cells re-charge! That could take another ten or fifteen minutes!"

"Did you just try to attack me?" Drusilla asked. The conquering colossus lifted her right leg, and stomped on the control tower that emitted the laser beam. Drusilla laughed at how easily she was able to defeat the tiny weapon.

"My boyfriend got me into the fantasy of conquering shrunken people," said Drusilla. "Ever since then, I've always wanted to swallow shrunken people! I'm training for the junior Olympics, so as far as you're concerned, I'm an Olympian!"

Drusilla knelt down, and licked her right index finger. She collected about a dozen colonists and smeared them harmlessly on the palm of her left hand, and licked her lips.

“Prepare to end up as the food of the gods!” Drusilla shouted, and licked the tiny colonists from her palm. She swallowed them with ease.

Some of the colonists tried to retreat into the barracks, but Drusilla stomped a section of them into the ground, which made the other colonists exit the barracks to face their fate. Drusilla knelt down again, and put her hand down palm up.

"I command you to step onto my palm! Make it easier for me to collect you!"

About fifty colonists climbed onto Drusilla's palm. When her palm was covered with colonists, the daunting diva stood once more and said: "You’re going on a one way journey to my belly!" Drusilla licked her palm clean, and closed her mouth. She swirled her tongue back and forth within her mouth and swallowed her prey. Once they were gliding down her esophagus, Drusilla laughed.

"Do you want to be stomped, or swallowed?" Drusilla asked with an evil smile on her face. "If you want to be swallowed, line up on my left, if you want to be stomped, line up on my right." All of the colonists lined up to her left, choosing to be devoured.

Drusilla lifted her shirt slightly, revealing her belly button and rubbed her stomach. "Your destiny is to end up as my next meal!"

There were more colonists than could fit in both of her palms, so Drusilla knelt down and placed both hands down, palms up. "I command you to climb onto my palms!"

One hundred of them climbed onto her left palm, and one hundred of them climbed onto her right palm. Drusilla stood up, and addressed the colonists still on the ground. "If any of you try to escape your compound, I'll stomp you down! I won't allow you the luxury of denying me the pleasure of sending you to my belly!"

Drusilla turned her attention to her palms. "Walk across my arms, and climb up onto my shoulders, so I can collect more colonists!"

The colonists had no choice but to obey the deific damsel, so they did as she commanded, and walked across her arms. Soon, there were one hundred colonists on her left shoulder, and one hundred on her right shoulder. Drusilla knelt down and placed her hands on the ground palms up as she did before. "Surrender to me, an Olympian has commanded you!"

As many colonists as could fit onto each of her palms climbed on, and Drusilla stood up once more. Just then, the remaining group of colonists tried to make their escape, and exited the compound. They headed toward the bushes about ten normal sized feet away. The thundering thirteen-year-old lumbered after them, and stomped them into the ground with two or three well placed stomps. The bottoms of her running shoes were caked with blood.

Drusilla addressed the remaining colonists on her palms and shoulders. "How does it feel to know your destiny is to end up in the belly of an Olympian?" The voracious vixen licked her lips, and smeared all of the colonists on her left palm onto her tongue, and sealed her lips. She swallowed them and laughed, then smeared the colonists on her right palm onto her tongue, and did the same with them.

The only remaining colonists were on her shoulders. "I command all of you to return to my palms!"

The colonists on her shoulders marched across her light brown arms to her palms. Soon, they were divided into two groups, half standing on her left palm, and the other half on her right palm.

"You should consider it an honor to die for me, my little slaves! There is no escape for you, my guts will be your grave!"

Drusilla tossed the captives from each hand into her mouth and swallowed them all. Her laughter echoed through the countryside as she continued on her run.

To Be Continued!

Last edited by SamuelOrona on Sat May 04, 2019 12:03 am, edited 4 times in total.

Author’s Note: This story takes place in the same milieu as “Aryan Thunder” but involves characters who are under 18. The main characters in Aryan Thunder are all young adults, so I wanted to write a side story with younger characters in the same world.

Chapter One: Dawn of the Thunder Children

In Bullet Bay, a city on California's central coast...

Guerra Rivera was at his local gym on an atypical Saturday night, he had just finished a workout and was consuming his post-workout meal at a counter that had a stool attached to the floor. A television was on above him, with a recording by Raleigh Doran; she was a woman who claimed to be from the future of an alternate reality where the Nazis won World War Two. The sound was off, but sub-titles were on the bottom of the screen.

Guerra read the wording. Raleigh claimed that she was going to miniaturize everyone who wasn't white down to an inch tall on Sunday morning at 6 a.m. Berlin time. The cut-off is half-white, anyone who isn't clear on their racial classification can meet with one of her fembots to acquire a transponder, which would allow Raleigh's orbital neutrino dissimilators to pass over that person without shrinking them. Raleigh planned on having fembots in every major city on Earth. Guerra did the calculations, and realized that the shrinking would be going down at 10 p.m. that very night.

The only gym worker on duty that night approached Guerra. He was wearing a lanyard with a transponder given to him by one of Raleigh's fembots. "So tonight's the night, eh?" the gym worker tried to socialize with Guerra.

"I don't believe any of it," said Guerra. "It's probably a publicity stunt for a new product, or a psychological experiment conducted by the military. There's no shrink ray cannons in orbit! If it wasn't for this hoax, I would've had an MMA fight tonight, but it's been canceled."

"According to Raleigh," the gym worker continued, "She explained that once miniaturized, the captives become immortal, and don’t need food, water or need to use the restroom. The normal sized people will also become immortal, but they will age normally until the aging process halts at age 21, but they will still be able to eat and drink and use the restroom."

"I wouldn't mind being immortal," said Guerra, "since you're white you're probably looking forward to this if it really happens."

"I can't see how you have any doubts about this," said the gym worker. "Raleigh took over every television channel and radio station with her message on a never-ending loop for the past three days. The only thing still working is the Internet."

"If I knew it was going to really happen, I'd probably get a hard-on," said Guerra. "Well, I'm done eating, I'm heading home."

Guerra exited the gym with his gym bag, and began walking home. It was only a short walk to his home from the gym, that's why he didn't drive. It was less than ten minutes before ten p.m., the time the orbital neutrino dissimilators were set to shrink all non-whites on the planet. When Guerra turned from the main boulevard to walk down the side street that led to his house, he saw a house party with drunk teenagers in the front yard listening to loud music.

A trio of Caucasian girls about age 12 to 13 walked past him heading toward the house party he just passed thirty seconds before ten p.m. Each of them were wearing transponder lanyards. The girls were Lisa Lockwood, Shelly Schwartz, and Danielle Dover. Lisa tells her two friends to keep their eyes on Guerra, because he is Hispanic and will shrink soon.

Lisa, the girl with long, light brown hair, said: "I'm a quarter Native American, but that didn’t stop me from acquiring a transponder from Raleigh’s fembots. My mother forced me to get one, and I had to stand in a long line."

"I had to get one too, my parents forced me to, even though I'm one hundred percent white," said Shelly.

"I've got the alarm on my watch set to go off at ten p.m.," said Lisa, "the exact time the shrinking is scheduled to take place."

Just before Lisa’s watch alarm went off, the girls look around just as a classic Chevy Impala lowrider full of Mexicans cruised by. Inside the Impala, a 17-year-old boy and his 16-year-old girlfriend sat in the front, while two guys and a girl sit in the back.

Carmen, sitting in the front, laments to her boyfriend Flacco, the driver: "I'm the only one among us who doesn’t have a Nick name. Your nick-name is Flacco, your brother is Gordo, and Chiquito and Fea both have nick-names!"

Gordo, sitting in the back, warns Flacco, the driver: "It's almost time for the miniaturization process to begin! Are you sure we're gonna make it to that party in time?"

Flacco assures Gordo, "We'll get to the house party full of Gavachos and white Heinas we can trust before the shrink rays go off. I know some of those people, so we can trust them to take care of us."

The alarm on Lisa's watch went off, and the orbital neutrino dissimilators were activated. When Guerra was instantly miniaturized down to an inch tall, the three young girls witnessed Guerra shrinking and the Mexicans in the car shrinking, which crashed into a Volkswagen two houses down from the house party because the driver of the Impala was now an inch tall. The one inch tall Guerra was able to jump out of the way of the Impala just in time.

Lisa tried to collect Guerra, but he tried to run away from her, so she stomped near him to prevent him from escaping and warned, “If you don’t let me collect you, I might accidentally stomp on you, so just surrender to my hand,”

Guerra realized there’s no way out, so he allowed her to collect him, while Shelly and Danielle collected the shrunken Mexicans from the wrecked Chevy Lowrider and turned off the ignition. Lisa told her friends, “They’re not people any more, they’re a race of toys now!” When Guerra was safely in Lisa’s hand, he says: “In an instant, you three girls went from being cowering kids to a towering trio of charismatic conquerors!”

Lisa is flattered by this comment, "I like the way that sounded! You made us seem powerful!"

Guerra explained, "I'm an English professor at the local junior college, and I'm obsessed with alliteration. Over the past couple of days, I've been coming up with alliterative terminology that corresponds with one group of people becoming powerful, because of this whole Raleigh Doran shrinking thing. Up until now, I thought this whole thing was a hoax!"

While Lisa was speaking to Guerra, Shelly and Danielle collected the shrunken Mexicans from the Impala.

Lisa took the inch tall Guerra to the house party, where kids her age and older teenagers, were attending. Lisa held Guerra in her hands, while Shelly held Flacco, Gordo, and Chiquito. Danielle held the two Mexican girls, Fea and Carmen.

Lisa explained to Guerra: "My name is Lisa Lockwood, I'm 12 years old. and these two girls are my best friends, Shelly and Danielle. All three of us have an older sister around 16 or 17 years old who are also attending the party. My sister's name is Misty, she's 17."

There was root beer for the younger kids, while the older teens drank beer. Lisa and her two friends drank root beer out of glass mugs.

"What if we put one of them in our mouth?" Lisa asked. "They're supposed to be immortal, according to Raleigh." Lisa took Guerra, and lifted him above her lips. She opened her mouth, and said, "Do you want to wrestle my tongue?" Lisa dropped Guerra into her open mouth, then clamped her lips shut. The other two girls watched as Lisa's cheeks moved as her tongue moved around inside of her mouth.

"Drink some more of your root beer with him inside!" said Danielle.

Lisa took her mug of root beer and took a huge drink, but accidentally swallowed Guerra. Lisa began laughing like crazy.

"What's so funny?" Shelly asked.

"I accidentally swallowed him!" said Lisa, and all three girls began laughing heartily.

A short time later, some of the older teenagers acquired more beer. Lisa’s older sister Misty brought Lisa some beer and a bottle of whiskey, and Lisa cracked open a beer and took a swallow. Meanwhile, inside her stomach, Guerra was swimming around in Lisa's chyme. He didn't need air because Raleigh's technology had rendered him immortal. He could see two ways of escape: either Lisa would fall asleep eventually, and he could crawl out when she was horizontal, or she could vomit him up. When the first swallow of beer came plunging down over him, he could smell the beer, so that got his hopes up. Guerra knew if Lisa drank enough, she might vomit him up.

Lisa finished her beer, then took a swig from the whiskey bottle. In a matter of seconds, she got sick and vomited. Guerra was forced up through her esophagus, and up through her throat and mouth. The vomit went all over the floor in between the couch Lisa and her friends were sitting on and a chair. Guerra escaped from her. At that point, he was forced to navigate a house full of thunder children in an effort to avoid detection, in a vain effort to escape.

Guerra hid underneath the couch that Lisa and her friends were sitting on. He looked around the room, and could see about a dozen normal sized teenagers standing around, holding red plastic cups with beer from the keg in the dining room.

"What happened to your captive?" Shelly asked Lisa.

"Can you help me find him?" Lisa asked. Shelly and Danielle got off the couch, and each girl got on one side of the couch and lifted, revealing Guerra underneath. Lisa reached down and grabbed him, and the girls lowered the couch.

"Me and my friends are Christians," said Lisa to Guerra. "We won't hurt you, we might swallow you from time to time, but we'll always vomit you up again. We have no plans of killing you."

A 16-year-old boy rallied some of the other kids together. "We're going to break into some of the houses nearby where minorities lived, maybe we can find more captives, and take anything that's valuable."

A group of guys and girls around his age went with him. They came back about twenty minutes later with plenty of captives. One of the high school girls was cutting designs out of poster board.

"What are you doing, Theta?" Misty asked.

"I'm making costumes for 32 of the captives, so we can use them for chess pieces!"

Just then, a 14-year-old girl named Aurora Adams arrived dressed as a goddess, carrying a block of clay.

"Aurora, why are you dressed like a goddess?" Theta asked.

"I got kicked out of an adults only toga party across town for being underage. I brought a block of clay, so some of the captives can sculpt a statue to pay tribute to my beauty, since I'm a junior Olympian."

"Aurora, do you want to play a game of chess?" Kelly Schwartz asked. "Theta cut out costumes for the captives to wear, so they can be the chess pieces!"

"Sure!" said Aurora. Some of the other kids placed bets on who would win. Most of the kids bet on Kelly to win, because she was a couple of years older than Aurora. After a few moves, both Kelly and Aurora lost some pieces, so they clutched the chess piece they won from their opponent in their hands while they played.

Lisa and her two friends watched the chess game. "They've been reduced to a race of pawns!" said Misty. "Even if they could escape from us, where could they go?"

Lisa’s older sister Misty took Lisa aside, to a spot in the hallway where there were no other kids who could overhear them. "These are trick dice, I got them in Old Town Sacramento. They always land on numbers that add up to seven! You can use these to win more captives."

There were several groups of kids playing various dice games. Lisa approached a boy, and said: "I'll gamble you for a captive!" Lisa took Guerra out and set him on the coffee table. The boy took one of his captives, and set him on the table. It was an older African-American man, from the look of his clothing, it appeared he was a minister at a church.

"We're trying for seven," said Lisa, as he rolled her dice and they came up on seven, one four and one three. The boy rolled his own pair of dice, and he got snake eyes. Lisa collected her new captive and returned to the couch with Shelly and Danielle. The boy returned for another challenge, he was one of the kids who had gone out to collect captives and had quite a few. Lisa played him again, and won. Before long, Lisa had six captives.

Lisa allowed her captives to stand on the coffee table. "Stay in this general area," Lisa told them.

Guerra came up with an idea. "Lisa, I'm an English teacher, maybe you should require your captives to use alliteration to address you. Lisa, your captives could call you lofty Lisa. Shelly’s captives could call her sovereign Shelly. Danielle’s captives call her deific Danielle."

"That's a great idea, Guerra!" said Lisa.

"I want all of you to divide yourselves up," said Lisa, " my captives on my left, Shelly's captives in the middle, and Danielle's captives on my right." The tiny captives did as the mighty matriarch commanded them. "Now, do as Guerra suggested, and give me a Nazi salute as you do it! The group I point at, must speak."

Lisa pointed at her six captives, and Lisa's captives said, "Lofty Lisa!" Then Lisa pointed at Shelly's captives, and they said, "Sovereign Shelly!" Then Lisa pointed at Danielle's captives, and they said, "Deific Danielle!"

One of the older teenage girls came through the front door with a large sack of neural stimulators.

"I've got a sack of neural stimulators," said the girl, as she dumped out twenty of them onto the main dining room table, "I got these from a fembot! They make you vomit if you have captives in your stomach. She followed me here!" The fembot followed her into the house. It was obvious that the fembot wasn't human; her skin had a different hue than normal, and her eyes were different. She never blinked. She was carrying about a dozen belts, with a dozen cartridges on each belt capable of holding a captive.

"The cartridges are made of transparent titanium," said the fembot. "The belt is black leather, and the fastenings are a silver colored metal known as Hectanium, an alloy one hundred times stronger than titanium. The belts are automatically adjustable, and are one size fits all."

The fembot began passing out the belts, and Misty grabbed two of them, one for her, and one for her younger sister. Kelly and Darian did the same for their younger sisters. Misty gave the belt to Lisa, and she tried it on. It automatically adjusted to her waist size.

"We should test the neural stimulators out by swallowing captives!" said the girl who dumped out the neural stimulators. Lisa, Shelly and Danielle allowed Guerra and the other captives to watch the spectacle.

"I volunteer!" said Aurora, and she dumped half a dozen random captives into a glass beer mug.

A teenage boy used his smart phone to record what Aurora was doing. "I'm posting this on the Internet!" said the boy.

Aurora poured beer over the captives until the mug was full, and while the captives swam around inside the beer mug, Aurora said, "I'm a junior Olympian, I've won three medals, so you're about to explore the belly of an Olympian!" The other kids cheered as the gluttonous goddess gulped down her captives.

Theta brought a large white plastic bowl and set it in front of Aurora.

"This is for you to vomit in," said Theta.

"Thank you, Theta," said Aurora.

One of the guys aimed a neural stimulator at Aurora’s head. Before he pulled the trigger, he said, "Wouldn't it be funny if the neural stimulator didn’t work?" All the kids in the room erupted in laughter.

Aurora’s stomach was visible because of her goddess costume, so she rubbed her belly button, and said: “Maybe we should see how long they can survive in there, and time it!”

The boy took aim at Aurora's head, and pulled the trigger of the neural stimulator. Aurora vomited, and all six captives fell into the large white plastic bowl. Aurora examined them and plucked them out one by one, and set them on the table. Both Guerra and Chiquito were standing on the table watching the whole spectacle, and one of the boys noticed them.

"That's Guerra Rivera!" said the boy, pointing at Guerra. "Who owns that captive?"

"I do," said Lisa, why do you ask?"

"He's an MMA fighter! He was supposed to fight tonight, but his fight got canceled because of Raleigh."

"Guerra," said Lisa, "why didn't you tell me you were a fighter? You told me you were an English teacher!"

"I thought everyone knew!" said Guerra.

"You should have him fight that strong looking Mexican guy!" said the boy. "We could bet on it!"

"Lisa, I don't think that would be a good idea," said Guerra.

"Why not?" Lisa asked. "Are you chicken?"

Guerra laughed. "I'm a professional fighter, I would royally annihilate Chiquito!"

"I know some karate too!" said Chiquito.

Before long, the two were set up in a mock fighting ring and all the teens placed bets on who would win the fight. Half of the people in the room were betting on Guerra to win, and the other half thought Chiquito would win.

"I'll try to drag this out," said Guerra to his opponent, "I know you're just a kid, I won't hurt you too bad,"

The fight began, and Guerra and Chiquito sparred and moved around the mock ring. Guerra threw a kick, but Chiquito was able to duck. Guerra kicked slow enough for Chiquito to react and move out of the way. Guerra threw a couple of punches and connected, then Chiquito threw a punch and missed. Chiquito kicked, but Guerra blocked the kick with his leg.

The whole time the fight was transpiring, the fembot was watching, and transmitting it back to Raleigh's starcruiser. Her eyes were digital video cameras.

Meanwhile, Chiquito had managed to get a couple of punches in, but it was obvious that Guerra was the better fighter. Within the first five minute round, Chiquito was on the floor, knocked out. Everyone on the room cheered, and the winners collected their money.

"I told you not to bet against Guerra Rivera!" said one of the older teenage boys. “I knew he would win!"

The fembot spoke: "Raleigh requests that the owner of the captive known as Guerra Rivera come to meet her on her starcruiser."

"I'm his owner!" said Lisa.

"And I'm her guardian," said Misty. "I'm Lisa's older sister, so if you take her, you have to take me, too!"

"Both of you come with me," said the fembot, and Lisa and Misty followed her out the front door and down the street. Both Lisa and Misty were wearing their belts that the fembot had given them; Lisa's 12 cartridges each contained a captive, while Misty only had three captives. Lisa held Guerra gently in her fist.

They arrived at a vehicle that resembled a Ferrari, but had four doors instead of tow. It was red and white. They got in, and the fembot piloted the vehicle into the sky. The anti-grav thrusters worked on an understanding of science unknown to 21st century humanity.

They arrived in orbit within two minutes. Lisa and Misty could see Raleigh's starcruiser in the distance. It was red, with a circular section with a rocket shaped section penetrating the circular section.

“Where are the orbiting shrink ray cannons?” Lisa asked.

“They’re in a geosynchronous orbit, “ the fembot replied. “We’re at too low an altitude to see them. There is Raleigh’s starcruiser in view up ahead.”

"Why is that section round?" Lisa asked.

"It is to generate artificial gravity," the fembot replied. "That is the section where Raleigh resides."

"Can't she generate artificial gravity, like in the science fiction movies?" Lisa asked.

"Artificial gravity generators, and anti-gravity generators generate a lot of radiation," said the fembot. "Even the anti-grav thrusters of this vehicle might cause human tissue damage if done to excess. This vehicle was designed for fembots, we are unaffected by radiation."

The flying vehicle docked with the starcruiser, which was massive. A hangar door slid open, the vehicle entered, and the door slid closed behind it.

The fembot ushered them to disembark, and they walked through a door and walked up a semi-circular hallway to Raleigh's ready room. When they entered, the fembot said: “Fembot K-83372 reporting!” Raleigh stood up and greeted them.

"I'm Raleigh Doran, nice to meet you."

"I'm Lisa Lockwood, and this is my older sister Misty Lockwood."

"I'm interested in starting up some fighting competitions, so normal sized people will have something to bet on."

"Are you going to return the television channels and radio stations back to normal?" Lisa asked.

"Yes, I'm doing that right now," said Raleigh, as she pushed a sequence of buttons. "The transmission I used to explain my goal has been removed from airplay," said Raleigh.

"What motivated you to do all of this?" Misty asked.

"I'm a college student on summer break," Raleigh replied. "This is a hobby of people from my era, in the universe where I hail from. I'm from about 20,000 years in your future, and I'm from a parallel universe where the Nazis emerged victorious from World War Two."

"Can you explain the science behind the miniaturization process?" Misty asked. "I'm a senior in high school, and I'm trying to get accepted to Cal Poly. It's an engineering school."

"Yes," said Raleigh. "Atoms are composed of protons, neutrons and electrons. Protons and neutrons are composed of quarks and gluons. Those quarks and gluons are stripped of matter in the form of neutrinos, and particles similar to neutrinos are stripped from the electrons."

"That makes sense," said Misty.

"Solid matter is held together by the repulsive force of electrons orbiting the nucleus of atoms," said Raleigh. "When those electrons decrease in size, weight, volume and mass, the atoms move closer together as they shrink, because the repulsive force of the electrons diminishes."

"You make it sound so simple," said Misty.

Raleigh handed Lisa a small chamber. "This is a revitalization chamber. Though Guerra is immortal, he can still get injured in fights. This chamber will allow him to recover within minutes, so he can fight more than once on the same day."

Lisa took the chamber from Raleigh. "Thank you, Raleigh!"

"And take this," Raleigh handed her a communicator. "It has a charge that will last for ten years, and it can reach me even if I return to my own reality. I need to ask you to return to Bullet Bay now, because there are other people I need to meet with."

"Thank you so much, Raleigh!" said Lisa, and the fembot who brought them there ushered them back to the strange vehicle they had arrived in.

Once inside the vehicle, Lisa and Misty were strapped in. Lisa still had Guerra clenched gently within her fist, and the revitalization chamber in her other hand.

"You didn't even tell her you thought what she was doing was wrong!" said Guerra to Lisa.

Lisa responded by saying, "I think what Raleigh is doing is cool! She’s making the world like a comic book!"

To Be Continued!

Last edited by SamuelOrona on Sat May 04, 2019 12:02 am, edited 1 time in total.